I'm Here for You
by WhazzupPeeps
Summary: Fin is devastated when she suffers the loss of a loved one back home in Halifax. Expands on events first mentioned in "A Stoked Christmas".
1. The Long Weekend

**CHAPTER 1** **- THE LONG WEEKEND**

**As mentioned in the story summary, this fanfic expands on events that were first mentioned in the fifth chapter of my earlier fic, A _Stoked_ Christmas. For those who don't like spoilers and haven't read that story yet, don't read it until after you've read this one. :D **

**This new _Stoked_ fanfic, set about a month before the events of Gromfest (and several months before the events of A _Stoked_ Christmas in the story's internal timeline), covers what happens over the course of a week at Surfer's Paradise, starting during Canada's August long weekend holiday (known in British Columbia as BC Day) and centering around Fin. While this story, like A _Stoked_ Christmas before it****, is a tragedy/hurt/comfort tale, there are also a couple of more light-hearted secondary storylines in the beginning which end up tying into the main storyline later, and there will also be some conflict deeper into the story.**

**And with that, _awayyyyy we go..._**

* * *

><p>Upstairs in the girls' room at the Surfer's Paradise staff house early on a Friday evening, Fin was having some fun bouncing around on her bed as she played air guitar while listening to her iPod. She was feeling good because she learned that she was getting a rare day off from her job in Housekeeping Services the next day, rare because Bummer, ever since he started making the junior staff at the hotel work weekends as well as weekdays in mid-June, rarely ever gave days off.<p>

The decision to give Fin the day off had actually been made by head housekeeper Rosie, who had seen that Fin, her top maid, needed a break. In recent weeks, Bummer, who seemed to have it in for the groms, had begun working Fin and her friends harder than ever, even forcing them to perform duties not part of their job descriptions. The hotel day manager had also been looking for excuses to cut into his staff's surfing time, at one point even attempting outright to deny the groms their right to surf, even though he did not control their free time and they could surf whenever they wished when they were off-duty; the only thing that kept Bummer from following through on his threat was when Johnny, acting on the groms' behalf, used something incriminating he had on Bummer to blackmail his boss into changing his mind and let the groms continue surfing.

Fin had begun hating Bummer for the things he was doing to her and her friends as of late, but he was the furthest thing from her mind right now. She was still riding an emotional high from the success the Surfing Songbirds, the music group she had with Lo, Emma and Kelly, had at the charity talent show at the hotel theatre two weeks earlier, made sweeter by successfully foiling Captain Ron's plot to have his top employees, Tuna and Betty, steal the spotlight for themselves at the show through cheating and sabotage. When she got a copy of the video footage Ty, Lo's older brother, had filmed of the Surfing Songbirds' performance at the show, Fin e-mailed the footage to her sister, Sam, back at home in Halifax. During a later webcam chat with Sam, Fin got to talk with her father about that performance, and her father congratulated her on her group's successful debut and said he was proud of her, which pleased Fin very much.

Fin was still playing air guitar while singing along to one of her favorite Wolfmother songs, "Woman", on her iPod when Reef, who was on his way up to the guys' third-floor room, overheard the sounds of jumping coming from the girls' room and poked his head in to see Fin jumping on her bed during her air-guitar singalong. Fin, who had not heard Reef come in because she had her iPod earbuds in her ears, was caught by surprise when she turned around in the middle of an air-guitar riff and saw Reef laughing at her.

"Shut up, kook!" Fin said as she grabbed her pillow off her bed and threw it in Reef's face. "It's not funny!"

"Are you kiddin' me?" Reef said, holding his sides from laughing so hard. "I should've recorded your little performance on my iPhone for a keepsake, that's how funny it was!"

"Whatever, squid," Fin remarked as Reef continued laughing. "What're you doing in here anyway?"

"Came by to see if you were ready to hit the Office and let off a little steam after a hard day's drudgery," Reef said. "So what were you so stoked about to be tryin' to channel Andrew Stockdale anyway?"

"I just heard I'm getting the day off tomorrow," Fin said with a grin.

"What?" an incredulous Reef said. "How'd you swing that? Bummer almost never gives us days off since he started makin' us work weekends too!"

"It wasn't Bummer," Fin said. "I got Rosie to thank for that. Doesn't matter though, I won't have to spend tomorrow cleaning dirty guest rooms or scrubbing grungy toilets that some guests can't be bothered to flush."

"Man, what a gyp!" Reef commented. "I gotta spend the day tomorrow teaching clueless kooks how to surf as usual."

"You'll be right at home then," Fin said with a giggle. "Meanwhile, I get to enjoy the day tomorrow. Kelly's boyfriend David is coming over again from Victoria and I'll be giving them another surfing lesson. I'm sure glad I got David for a student instead of those bennies you have to teach."

"Hey, those bikini babes I teach are not 'bennies'!" Reef said defensively. "And what do you got as a surfing teacher that I don't? If I was the one teaching David instead of you, he'd be doin' tricks on the waves after his first lesson!"

"Oh, really?" Fin retorted with a raised eyebrow. "If you're such a good instructor, then why did David pick me over you to teach him how to surf? Oh yeah, that's 'cause he wanted a teacher who'll actually show him how to surf the right way, not someone who's a hot-dogger and a glory hound. And last I checked," she added, "the students you've had lately haven't exactly been bikini babes, have they?"

"Yeah?" Reef said, not knowing what else to say to counter Fin. "Yeah, well..." he added before blowing a 'raspberry' at the blonde tomboy, then said, "...to you!" before he turned and walked out the door.

"Oh yeah, real mature, Reef," Fin said dryly with a smirk before she turned her iPod back on and resumed her air-guitar session while jumping back and forth between her bed and the floor.

* * *

><p>Later at the hotel entrance, Kelly was waiting there for the Whalebus when it arrived at just after seven to drop off passengers it had picked up at the seaplane terminal at Sunset Beach. The Pirate Ship manager and head waitress had just gone off duty after tallying the evening's dinner bills and was waiting for her boyfriend, David Hughes, who was coming up to the hotel to spend the August long weekend and to hang out with her.<p>

As soon as she saw David step off the bus with his guitar case and luggage, a happy Kelly ran over to greet him with a hug and some kissing. After he and Kelly finished their kiss, David asked her, "So, how's my favorite Songbird doing tonight?"

Kelly giggled a little, feeling flattered that David remembered her performance with the Surfing Songbirds thanks to the video she had e-mailed him. "Still feeling great after the talent show," she said.

"Then wait'll you hear this," David said with a grin. "I'm going to be here until the Sunday after BC Day, so you've got me for a whole ten days."

Kelly squealed happily and wrapped her arms around David again when she heard the news. "Oh, that's awesome!" she said gleefully. "We'll get to do what we want together when I'm not on duty at the DR, you'll get to see my friends around the hotel when they're working..."

"Speaking of friends," David cut in, "I hear you've got a surfing lesson booked for me with Fin tomorrow, right?"

"Sure do," Kelly confirmed. "Fin's got the day off from work tomorrow, so she's free to show you and me a few more moves on the water."

"Cool," David said. "I'm feeling ready to start learning to do tricks on the waves if Fin thinks I'm ready. No fancy tricks right away like the kinds her friend Reef does to show off, but I'm willing to start slow and build up."

"No worries then," Kelly said with a smile as she escorted David to the front desk to check in. "Fin's the one to show you what to do."

* * *

><p>Later that night at the staff house just before midnight, Fin came into the girls' room, fresh from taking a shower earlier, now dressed up in her sleepwear of a spaghetti-strapped white top and floral-patterned pink pajama bottoms. After a surf session and a later bonfire party at the Office with the rest of the groms, along with Johnny, Ty, Ripper and No Pants Lance, she was feeling tired and ready to go to sleep.<p>

Finding Lo and Emma already fast asleep in their beds, Fin made sure not to wake them as she walked silently to her own bed, hopped into it and pulled the covers over her, then closed the light on the nightstand, turned on her right side and closed her eyes. _Tomorrow's a brand-new day_, Fin thought to herself with a smile as she started drifting off to sleep. _And it's a day I'm gonna enjoy because I don't have to work or have that slavedriver Bummer breathing down my neck._

Meanwhile, as Fin slept, her iPhone, which had been set to vibrate instead of beep, began ringing in a small bag she kept on the floor beside her bed, but she never heard her phone and she ended up missing the call, which flashed on its display:

_JUL 31 12:07 AM _  
><em>1 Missed call - Mom<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Up next, Bummer sticks Lo with babysitting duty again and Lo recruits Fin to help her out. Also, Reef arranges a video game tournament with the guys after they call him out on his bragging, and Fin gets another call from home.<strong>

**_Stoked_ (c) Fresh TV Inc. and Teletoon. I don't own the show or any of the characters except my OC.**

**Comments, reviews...**


	2. Misadventures in Babysitting

**CHAPTER 2 - MISADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING  
><strong>

The next morning, Lo and Emma were busy waitressing at the Pirate Ship, which was bustling with customers for breakfast, when Lo walked over to Emma as the latter was on her way to the pick-up window. "How come Kelly's not here yet?" the rich girl asked Emma. "I thought she would've been here when we punched in for work."

"Kelly's out with David right now," Emma explained. "They're getting a surfing lesson from Fin on the hotel beach."

"I wish I could have the day off like Fin has," Lo said. "You'd think we'd be getting one anyway with this being the long weekend."

"You and me both," Emma agreed. "But you know how Bummer is. Since he made us start working seven days a week back in June, he's never directly given us a day off. The only ones of us who've had days off since then were Fin and Reef, when your dad gave them the day off as a reward for winning the Tandem Surfing Contest, and then Fin again when Rosie gave her today off yesterday."

"No wonder we feel run down sometimes," Lo commented. "If Bummer thought he could get away with it, he'd make us work even if we were sick. Good thing they have rules against that."

As Lo was talking, Bummer arrived at the Pirate Ship, followed moments later by Kelly, who had finished her surfing lesson with Fin earlier and was now in her pirate captain outfit. "Lo, you're off-duty from the DR as of now," Bummer addressed her. "One of the child sitters called in sick this morning and there's no one else available. You're the only one on duty here who's had previous experience with kids, so you're pulling kid-sitting duty today."

"What?" said a shocked Lo, who did not like to babysit kids based on her previous experiences dealing with the Marvin boys, Todd and Mark. "You're not serious, are you?"

"No, I'm only kidding," Bummer said sarcastically. "Yeah, I'm serious. Either you babysit today, or I call your father about you trying to skip out on work!"

"But I don't even like babysitting!" Lo protested as Bummer turned and left the restaurant. "The last few times I babysat, I've only had one good experience with doing it. Who am I supposed to be watching anyway?"

"If you're worried it's those Marvin brats, don't be, it's not them," Kelly spoke up. "I passed by those two girls Erica and Brianna on my way here. They're waiting out in the lobby, so they must be the ones you've got."

"_Whew_, what a relief," said Lo, who had once sat Erica and Brianna without the Marvin boys and had an easier time dealing just with the two sisters, who were not as bad as Todd and Mark and were better behaved when not under the Marvins' bad influence. "But what about the customer rush here?" she then asked. "Won't you and Emma get swamped dealing with them?"

"Don't worry about it," Kelly reassured Lo. "Me and Emma can handle things until Zack gets here later. Anyway, think of it like it's a paid day off for you," she added, giving Lo a pat on the back before sending her on her way.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Reef, Broseph, Johnny, Ripper and Lance were hanging out at the staff house, playing video games on the living room widescreen TV while waiting to go on duty with their respective jobs. Reef and Johnny were taking their turn at playing <em>Pong<em> on the ancient, 1970s-era game console, which the seniors remembered had been in the staff house since before they came to Surfer's Paradise as groms the year before.

"_Ha-haaa_, game and set!" Reef crowed as he used his onscreen paddle to knock the ball past Johnny's paddle and take another win. "That's 15 to 8 and three games in a row for me, dude!"

"Which you only won because my paddle controller sucks," Johnny griped.

"Yeah, right," Reef said dismissively about the game controls. "Make all the excuses you want, but I'm still the staff house _Pong_ champion."

"Johnny's got a point though, mate," Ripper said. "We were playin' _Pong_ on this game deck last year and the seniors who were here then talked about playin' it the year before. I think Bummer must've bought it on the cheap over at the second-hand store in town 'cause he didn't want to fork out the cash to get a better game deck for the summer staff here. I'm surprised this deck's even still working after about thirty years."

"Well, good game deck or no, it don't change anything," Reef bragged. "I'd still be the ace of video games here in the staff house, just like I am on the waves." When they heard Reef's boast, the rest of the guys broke out in laughter.

"What?" Reef wondered. "What's so funny?"

"You saying you're the ace of video games, dude," Lance said in between laughs. "The only thing you're an ace at is bragging 'bout how you're tops at everything you do, 'specially when you're around Fin."

"C'mon, I do not brag!" a defensive Reef said. "I just state the facts!"

The guys' laughter then got even louder, to Reef's chagrin. "You sure do brag all right, bra!" Broseph joined in. "Any chance you get to rub it in to Fin 'bout how dudes are better than wahines at surfing or anything else, you'll take it. Sometimes you're the same way with the rest of us 'bout surfing, 'bout other sports, 'bout video games..."

"What I think Broseph's trying to get at," Ripper told Reef, "is that you like to talk a big game to cover up for the fact that you don't got the goods to back up your big talk."

"Really?" Reef said. "So you think I'm not the best video game player here, huh?"

"If the game cartridge fits, mate..." Ripper said, also calling Reef on his boasts.

"Okay, then let's put it to the test," Reef said, picking up the gauntlet Ripper figuratively threw down. "Let's have a video game tournament here tonight after work, so we can see who the best video gamer there is - which we know'll be me!"

"Count me in then, dude," Lance said. "Wouldn't mind being the one to make Reef eat his words."

"Right on, that makes three in the tourney," Ripper said. "Johnny, you wanna throw in too?"

"Thanks, but count me out," Johnny said. "I promised Emma I'd join her for a surf sesh after work tonight at the Office, so your tournament's a no-go for me." Right away, Reef started clucking like a chicken at Johnny, who glared at the cocky surfer in response. "Okay, what's that for?" the front desk concierge asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"After the plastering I gave you at _Pong_ a moment ago, I ain't surprised you'd rather not take part," Reef said glibly. "That's okay, Johnny. Better to bow out now and admit I'm the better man at video games than risk taking another mopping on the floor like you just did." All Reef's comment did was earn him another dirty look from Johnny.

"Okay then, how 'bout you, Broseph?" Ripper then said.

"Sorry, guy," Broseph replied, also declining to take part in the tournament. "I like playing video games too, but you guys know how I feel about competitions. Besides, I'm joining Johnny and Emma at the Office too. Tell you what, though," he added. "I'll bring down the game deck from our room upstairs and hook it up to the set here. You guys can play that STOKE surfing simulator game we had set up in the lobby earlier this month 'cause I just got a motion detector add-on for the game deck and a couple of board simulators to hook up to it for a two-player game."

"Nice!" Ripper said. "With the two-player setup, we can make this tourney a four-man single-elimination showdown. The higher scoring player in his game wins and moves on to face the winner of the other game for bragging rights."

"Sounds good to me," Reef said. "And that gives me the edge 'cause I co-created the STOKE, so it doesn't matter who I face, I'll still come out on top at the end."

"We'll see about that, mate," Ripper said. "We still gotta get a fourth player to join us. With Johnny and Broseph both out, maybe I should give Fin a call and see if she wants in."

"You can try, but I think Fin's supposed to join me, Emma and Broseph at the Office later on too," Johnny said.

"Gee, that's too bad," a grinning Reef mused. "Sure would've loved a chance to best Fin in yet another competition between us."

"Right, then I'll give Ty a call and see if he'll join in," Ripper said, taking out his iPhone.

Just then, Bummer entered the staff house living room to confront his employees. "Okay, what're you goldbricks doing still loafing around?" he barked at the guys. "You're supposed to report for work in three minutes, so get your lazy butts in gear and get cracking or you're all looking at strikes for being late!"

After Bummer left, the guys got up to head off to their respective jobs when Lance grumbled, "Man, since when did Bummer start channeling Napoleon?"

"I'll see you dudes tonight," Reef said to Ripper and Lance, "and be prepared to be dazzled by greatness when we get our A-games on in the tournament!"

As Reef strutted off to his surfing instructor job at the hotel beach, Johnny took Ripper aside and told him, "Yo Ripper, kick Reef's butt for me in the tournament tonight."

"With relish, mate," a grinning Ripper agreed, trading a fist bump with Johnny.

* * *

><p>After Lo changed from her Pirate Ship serving wench outfit back into her yellow sundress in the staff locker room, she went out to the lobby and found Erica and Brianna, the two eight-year-old fraternal twins she would be looking after that day under Bummer's orders. "Hey Erica, hey Brianna," Lo greeted the two girls. "How're you doing?"<p>

"We're bored!" Erica and Brianna both piped up in a semi-whiny tone.

"Not a problem," Lo said cheerfully. "There's lots to do around the hotel, so we'll figure out something."

"I'm also hungry," Erica, the slightly chubby twin, said. "I wanna go eat lunch."

"Okay, we'll do that, Erica," Lo agreed. "We'll grab lunch for you over at the Pirate Ship in a few minutes, as long as it's not anything from your mom's 'Do Not Eat' list."

"And I wanna go shopping in town later," Brianna, the slimmer twin who looked like a smaller, younger version of Lo with shorter hair, then said. "There's a sale on for a dress I wanna get at one of the stores I like."

"Now Brianna, remember what your mom said about saving your allowance?" Lo reminded her.

"But it's a sale, though," Brianna repeated. "The dress I want is 50% off!"

Lo, who was a sucker for clothing sales, then figured it would not do much harm to let Brianna get the on-sale dress she wanted. "Okay, I'll let you get the dress you want as long as it doesn't cost too much," she told her young charge. "Just one dress though, no accessories or anything else."

"Who cares about shopping?" Erica cut in. "I wanna go play at the beach later."

"And I said I wanna go shopping!" Brianna fired back.

"The beach!" Erica said.

"Shopping!" Brianna replied.

"The beach!"

"Shopping!"

Lo facepalmed herself in frustration as Erica and Brianna argued back and forth over what to do after lunch. As she was about to jump in and put a stop to the two sisters' arguing though, Lo, to her relief, spotted Fin coming into the main lobby from the beach, fresh off her surfing lesson with Kelly and David. "Boy, am I glad to see you," the rich girl said as she ran up to Fin.

"Yeah, I can see why too," Fin quipped as she saw Erica and Brianna continue to argue close by. "Looks like you got your hands full there, Princess. Want to call in the UN to mediate this one?"

"I need your help, Fin," Lo said, ignoring her friend's witty comment. "Bummer stuck me with babysitting duty again and I'm short on ideas for keeping those two occupied. I need some suggestions or I'm afraid they're going to get bored, seek out the Marvin boys and get into all kinds of mischief with them, and I don't want that! Fin, give me some ideas."

"Sorry Lo, but you know I suck at dealing with kids as much as you do," Fin said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Besides, I just got in from a private surfing lesson and I want to head back to the Roach Motel and change from my rash guard into my bikini so I can go relax by the pool and maybe do a little swimming there." As the blonde tomboy began to walk away, she added, "You'll have to deal with that little civil war of yours on your own."

Just then, an idea struck Lo, who was inspired by Fin's last comment. "Fin, you're a genius!" she said as she ran over and grabbed her friend's arm.

"Uhh, okay," a puzzled Fin said. "How so?"

"You just gave me an idea for dealing with the kids," Lo explained. "But for this, I'll need your help for sure. Since you're still dressed for the water anyway, let me go change into my bikini and I'll get the girls into their swimsuits. Trust me on this one," she finished before taking Erica and Brianna with her to their guest room to get changed. "You're gonna enjoy my idea once you hear it."

"I'll believe it once I hear it," Fin commented to herself once Lo and the kids were out of earshot.

* * *

><p>In the meantime, Fin's iPhone, which she had left in her bag back at the staff house as she did not want to be disturbed at that point on her day off, went off once again and went unanswered due to its owner waiting in the hotel lobby for Lo, Erica and Brianna to return. As it finished ringing, the call display read:<p>

_JUL 31 10:45 AM _  
><em>1 Missed call - Mom<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Coming up, Lo, Fin and the kids engage in some fun on the beach and around the hotel - and end up pulling Kelly and David into their hijinks. Plus, Fin gets a phone call from home that turns her world upside-down.<strong>


	3. Fin McCloud's Day Off

**CHAPTER 3 - FIN McCLOUD'S DAY OFF**

**Here's Chapter Three as planned, picking up as Fin's day off from work continues. While this chapter begins in a lighthearted vein, brace yourselves near the end because it's going to get heavy.**

* * *

><p>As soon as Lo returned to the lobby with Erica and Brianna after all had changed into their swimwear, Lo revealed her idea to Fin once she returned from the hotel gift shop, carrying four water-soaker guns with her. "Wow, what's up with all the water bazookas there, Lo?" Fin wondered aloud.<p>

"That's part of the idea I got to help keep Erica and Brianna entertained," Lo said. "We're going to have a water gun fight outside."

"A water gun fight?" Erica said, her interest suddenly piqued.

"Right on!" Brianna joined in as the two sisters started cheering excitedly.

"So that's your plan?" a skeptical Fin asked. Taking Lo aside, she said to the hotel heiress under her breath, "You sure you want to put water guns in the hands of two kids that're probably hopped up on sugar as we speak?"

"Better them than the Marvins, that's for sure," Lo noted. "If it were up to those two terrors, Todd and Mark would probably choose paintball guns and aim them at everyone else in the hotel. Thanks, but no thanks." Once she finished talking privately with Fin, Lo walked with her back to Erica and Brianna. "Okay girls, you ready to go?" Lo said to the twins.

"Yeah!" Brianna said enthusiastically. "I wanna team up with you, Lo! Me and you against Fin and Erica!"

"Well, okay," Lo agreed, glancing over briefly to Fin before turning back to the girls. "If that's how you want to do it."

"It sure is," said Brianna, who then revealed that she came prepared in advance when she whipped out a smaller squirt gun from behind her back and let a surprised Fin have it with a few squirts of water in her face.

"So you wanna play it that way, huh?" Fin said as she wiped the water from her face while Brianna laughed. "Then if you're feeling lucky, bring it on, ladies!" she then added with a fiendish grin. Lo then handed Fin, Erica and Brianna each their water-soakers and they went off to fill them up using water from the sinks in the women's washroom off the lobby. Once Lo set a rule that indoor areas of the hotel were off-limits for shooting at each other, the girls were off and running with their water gun fight, starting when Fin and Erica opened fire on Lo and Brianna first when they went outside through the main entrance.

"_Ha!_ Gotcha, Princess!" Fin said with a gleeful cackle. She then turned her water-soaker on Brianna and sprayed her, adding, "And this one's payback for the squirt gun for your lady-in-waiting, too."

"Oh, yeah?" a grinning Lo countered, letting Fin have it in the face with a spray from her water gun. "Have a drink on me, Miss Junior Surfing Champion!"

"Oh, it's on now!" Fin said as she, Lo and the kids started running toward the hotel beach, laughing as they soaked each other with shots from their water guns.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile at the hotel pool, David was relaxing in one of the poolside sunlounger chairs when Kelly arrived from the Pirate Ship, carrying a tray with a tall glass of ice-cold Pepsi. Emma had originally taken the drink order from David while she was doing an order round at the pool, but when Kelly heard that her boyfriend had made the order, she offered to take the Pepsi out to him personally.<p>

"Oh, hey Kelly," said David, who was pleasantly surprised to see his girlfriend deliver his drink as he raised his sunglasses and sat up. "I wasn't expecting to see you bring my drink out, but that's all right with me."

"For you, it's my pleasure," Kelly replied with a smile. "You deserve a chance to chill after spending the last couple of weeks working steady."

"I could sure use that chance too," David said. "Dad had me going here and there around some of his businesses back at home since the last time I saw you. The last two weeks alone, I've gone between helping run his two restaurants, working in the control room at the TV station and assistant managing at the Plaza Theatre downtown."

"Wow, and I thought my job kept me busy," Kelly quipped.

David laughed a little when he heard Kelly's remark. "Sometimes I wish I had your workload - that's like half what I have," he commented, "but that's okay. I don't mind interning with Dad's company because it'll prepare me for when I'm ready to run the business of my choice when the time comes."

"Good point," Kelly said, nodding. After a pause, she then asked David, "So, what do you want to do tonight after I get off work?"

"_Hmm_," David mused, giving Kelly's question a little thought. "Man, where do I begin? We've got another eight full days together here and it's hard to decide what to start with."

"Surprise me," Kelly said, getting a bit of a dreamy look on her face as she thought about what she wanted to do with David.

"Well, we could hang out here at the pool to start," David said. "There's a song I've been working on and I'd love to play it for you at poolside."

"_Mmm_, sounds good," Kelly said wistfully. "How about taking a swim in the pool afterward?"

"Works for me," said David with a grin. "Then we could take a walk along the beach after that, then relax in a hammock back at the pool and watch the stars."

"Sure," a dreamy-eyed Kelly agreed while she thought about getting to see David swim in the pool later on. The Pirate Ship manager's daydream, however, was abruptly cut short moments later when she felt a cold stream of water knock her pirate captain's hat off her head and soak the back of her hair and the top part of the back of her uniform. "What the...?" she snapped as she realized she and David were surrounded by Lo and Brianna on one side and Fin and Erica on the other, continuing their water gun battle.

"Hey, you're not supposed to hit the staff or the guests here!" Lo told Brianna, who had sprayed Kelly from behind.

"Sorry, I was trying to get Erica," Brianna said in her defence, then she shot over Kelly and David to try to get her sister, only for David to also get caught in the crossfire when some of the spray from her water gun landed on him, then also get soaked from behind when Erica tried to get Brianna back but missed her target.

"Yikes, that's cold!" David said as he felt the stream of water hit him between his shoulder blades.

"Sorry, David!" Fin called as she, Lo and the kids then ran off to continue their game elsewhere, still shooting at each other with their water soakers.

"_Ooooohh!_ LO!" a displeased Kelly yelled, clenching her fists. "Why couldn't she keep the kids and their water fight away from the pool area?" she then complained to David. "Now my uniform's soaked and I'll have to go get changed!"

David, on the other hand, kept a cooler head about the situation. "It's okay, it's only water," he said as he handed Kelly her hat back. "No real damage done as long as you have a spare uniform handy."

"I know," Kelly said, shaking some of the water off her hat while calming herself down. "But still, Lo needs to keep better control over the kids she babysits for."

"I understand," David said, "but that's easier said than done with some of the kids you told me she has to sit for. You know those two boys she's sat for a few times, the out-of-control ones I first saw at the restaurant and that we ran into at the movies later that night when they dumped popcorn on us from the balcony?"

"Yeah, _those_ two, the ones with the bad parents," Kelly recalled, thinking about the Marvin family, whose sons Todd and Mark had become the terrors of Surfer's Paradise due to their parents' deliberate lack of discipline over them and Bummer's unwillingness to curb their bad behavior in favor of keeping the family spending money at the hotel, which had led to several guests checking out early in frustration, as well as one hotel babysitter quitting, during the past two months as a result of personal run-ins with the Marvin boys. "At least there, I can sympathize with Lo."

"I was thinking," David then said after a pause. "Does the gift shop here sell balloons, the kind you can fill up with water?"

Immediately, Kelly caught on to what David was suggesting. "Yeah, they do," she said with a grin. "You must be thinking what I'm thinking, then." Kelly had originally thought about giving Lo a strike for the water fight incident moments earlier, but she liked the sound of David's suggestion better.

"Mm-hmm," David said with a nod and a sly smirk.

Kelly then smiled back, happy to know she and David were on the same page. "I have lunch break coming anyway, so I'll take it early," she said. "Wait for me in the lobby while I change into my bikini, then we'll head for the gift shop."

* * *

><p>After getting away from the pool area, Lo, Fin, Erica and Brianna took their water gun fight around the side of the hotel, back to the front at the main entrance area and down the boulevard before they arrived back at the hotel beach. When Erica zapped Lo from behind with a cold shot of water to her long hair, the surprised hotel heiress squealed. "Erica, watch my hair!" Lo admonished a giggling Erica.<p>

"Lo, it's a water fight," Fin reminded her friend. "Your hair's gonna get wet whether you want it to or not." Fin then took aim and fired, but Lo ducked.

"Ha! Nice aim!" a grinning Lo said sarcastically before she got nailed with another spray from Fin's water soaker. Lo and Brianna returned fire, but Fin dodged both shots.

"Nice try, Princess," Fin crowed. "You couldn't hit the side of a barn!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, you only surf to pick up guys!" Lo retorted with a giggle.

Fin gasped on hearing Lo's comment, leaving her open to get nailed with more jets of water by Lo and Brianna. "Okay, that's it!" the blonde tomboy said. "Hope you like water facials!" Fin then took aim at Lo again...but before she could get her, she felt a sudden splash of water on the side of her head, while Lo simultaneously felt a similar splash against her head. Both girls, along with Erica and Brianna, then turned to see Kelly and David a few feet away, lobbing water balloons at the foursome.

"Hope you do too, Surfer Girls," Kelly, who was now in her tartan bikini, remarked with a grin as she grabbed another balloon. "This is payback for the pool earlier!" She and David then resumed throwing the balloons like grenades at the girls, with Kelly taking Lo and Brianna while David had Fin and Erica.

"Run all you want, but it won't work for you 'cause I don't miss," said Kelly, who put her experience playing softball to use as she put her pitching arm to work, to Lo and Brianna, who got hit every time with water balloons thanks to Kelly's precision aim. Lo and Brianna gave back as good as they got though, shooting and soaking Kelly with their water guns.

"Sure hope your aim's as good as your surfing, David!" Fin remarked as she and Erica fired shots with their soakers at Kelly's beau.

"Then let's put it to the test," a grinning David replied before he started firing off more water balloons. Like Kelly, David was on his mark every time as he scored hits on Fin and Erica with the balloons he threw. The water fight continued until all involved ran out of ammunition, then the six participants dropped to the ground, worn out but happy as everyone began laughing.

"Wow, that was fun!" Lo said in between laughter. "Never had this much fun doing something that wasn't surfing."

"You said it, Lo," Fin agreed. "Erica, Brianna, how 'bout you?"

"It sure was fun!" Erica said. "We should do it again!"

"Yeah, let's do it again!" Brianna chimed in.

"Hey, it sure gave me a good workout," a grinning David added. "I haven't had fun like this in a water fight since middle school."

"I'd like to do it again too, but I have to get back to work soon before Bummer sends out a search party," Kelly said. "I had to leave Emma and Zack with the lunch crowd and they're probably swamped with orders by now."

"Speaking of lunch," Lo then said to Erica and Brianna, "girls, let's go dry off and change so we can go eat. Fin, you want to hang out with us?"

"Sure, why not?" Fin said with a shrug. "I still have the whole day to waste and there's a cheeseburger back at the Pirate Ship with my name on it."

* * *

><p>Following the water gun fight, Lo took Erica and Brianna for lunch at the Pirate Ship, with Fin tagging along at Lo's invitation. After that, the foursome went into Sunset Beach to go shopping and let Brianna get the dress she wanted, then they returned to the hotel to have fun at the beach. When Erica and Brianna's mother returned to pick up her girls just before 6:00, Lo received $100 as payment for watching them, along with an extra $20 tip for her trouble.<p>

Lo was busy counting her babysitting money in the lobby at around 6:30 when Fin came by after having dinner back at the staff house and spotted her near the front desk. "What's up, your wallet getting heavy on you again?" Fin quipped.

"No, just checking to see how much I have to get a new bikini in town next time I go shopping," Lo replied. "Or maybe I'll just put it back toward my 'mad money' stash. I haven't really decided yet." The rich girl then checked the time on the clock at the front desk. "I'm heading off to join my mom for dinner at the DR," she told Fin. "Want to come along?"

"No, I'm good," Fin said. "Already had last night's leftovers back at the Roach Motel. Besides, I'm gonna go join Broseph, Johnny and Emma for a surf sesh in a bit down at the Office."

"Cool, then I'll see you guys there later," Lo said. "I may be a while though, Mom wants to spend some mother-daughter quality time with me over dinner."

"Later it is, then," Fin said as Lo left for the Pirate Ship for dinner with Mrs. Ridgemount. Moments later, Fin's iPhone, which she had retrieved from her bag in the staff house before she had dinner, began ringing in the right pocket of her capri pants. Taking the phone out, Fin saw the call was coming from her mother, so she decided to answer it. "Hey Mom, what's up?" Fin replied.

"Fin, where've you been the past few hours?" Fin's mother said at the other end. "I tried calling you several times last night and today and I just kept getting your voice mail."

"Sorry, Mom," Fin said. "I had the day off from work and I was just out chillaxing. And those calls last night, I must've been asleep when you made them, so I missed them. But why were you calling me out here that late when it's like 4:00 in the morning back home?"

"That's...that's the thing, Fin," her mother said. "It's about your father."

Fin, who was initially puzzled to learn about all the phone calls her mother made to her since early that morning, became concerned when she heard her father mentioned, especially so because of the emotional tone she noticed in her mother's voice. "Wh...what about him?" Fin asked.

"He went shopping downtown last night," Fin's mother began, "and...and he was on his way home when...uhh..."

Fin became worried when she heard her mother pause, sensing she had bad news she was hesitating to tell her. "What? What happened?" she asked.

"H-h-he was driving through an intersection when another car ran a red light and hit your dad's car," Fin's mother went on. "T-boned the car on the driver's side. The police found out later that the other driver had been drinking - his alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit and he was driving with a suspended licence from previous drunk driving convictions."

Fin's face went ashen as her blood rushed to her feet, beginning to fear the worst. "W-w-what about Dad?" she asked next. "H-h-how bad was he hurt?"

"It...it was really bad," Fin's mother continued. "A rescue crew had to use the Jaws of Life to pry open the car and get him out, then the ambulance got him to the hospital from there. The doctors in the emergency room worked as hard as they could to save him...but..."

By then, Fin was becoming visibly upset. "No...please don't..." she said, the emotion in her voice clearly showing, not wanting to hear the answer she knew was coming.

"I'm sorry, Fin," her mother then said. "There was nothing they could do...he died of his injuries this morning..."

For Fin, who loved her father, hearing that news was like a sword going right through her heart. "No," she said, clearly shaken and upset by the news as she shook her head and her eyes began to water. "No, no, no, no, no, NO!" She then hung up her phone and immediately began running out of the hotel lobby and toward the staff house, not wanting anyone to see how she was feeling then.

As soon as she reached the staff house, Fin bolted up the stairs and into her, Emma and Lo's shared room, then slammed the door shut. She was relieved not to have seen anyone on her way there since she did not feel like dealing with anyone at that point. The moment she entered the empty room, an emotionally-distressed Fin ran over to her bed, threw herself onto it face-down and, overwhelmed by the rush of emotions she was feeling over her father's death, buried her face in her pillow and began to cry, the pillow muffling the sounds of her sobbing.

* * *

><p><strong>Next, Fin deals with her tragedy alone when Lo comes along and lends a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on. Also, the STOKE tournament begins as Reef, Ripper, Lance and Ty vie for video game supremacy at the staff house.<strong>

**Thanks for the reviews so far, and keep 'em coming.**


	4. Wounded

**CHAPTER 4 - WOUNDED**

**This chapter (and the next two coming) deals with how Fin handles the start of mourning her father's death (including her state of mind at this point, for which this chapter is named), and how Lo (as mentioned in the preview last chapter) helps her through. A warning of one instance of mild language in the first part.**

* * *

><p>At about 7:30, nearly an hour after she received the news of her father's untimely passing, Fin was still in the girls' room at the staff house. As a result of hearing that disturbing news, Fin now did not feel like surfing with her friends at the Office, but instead had spent the past hour in the bedroom, alternating between crying and processing her thoughts, thinking about her mother's description of her father's last moments. She had not bothered to change from her regular outfit into her surfing gear, but instead had changed into her sleepwear, figuring she would go straight to bed and sleep when she was done crying.<p>

Fin was sitting on the side of her bed, still weeping softly, when she heard the room door open behind her. Realizing someone was coming in, she became silent and remained sitting where she was when that person stepped inside.

"Hey Fin, you all set to hit the waves?" Lo, who had walked into the room after coming from dinner at the Pirate Ship with her mother, said as she saw Fin on her bed. When Fin did not answer, Lo became puzzled. "Fin? Didn't you hear me?" the rich girl then asked.

"Leave me alone," a despondent Fin, who recognized Lo's voice but did not turn around, muttered.

Lo then became concerned when she heard Fin's response. "What's going on? Is something wrong?" she said.

"Nothing's wrong," Fin replied, denying that she was having a problem. "I just want some time to myself to think."

Lo, however, was not convinced by Fin's answer and sensed otherwise. "I think there is something wrong," she said, closing the door gently behind her. "Want to talk about it?"

"NO!" Fin snapped tersely, her voice rising. "Can't I have some time to myself without people thinking something's wrong with me?"

"Fin, this is me you're talking to," Lo said, appealing to her friend as she approached her bed. "It's just the two of us here. Reef's not here to bug you and there's no one else in here either. You can talk to me, you can tell me whatever you want to."

"I told you, there's nothing wrong," Fin said, still in denial. "And there's nothing to talk about either."

"It's okay," Lo said as she walked over to sit down beside Fin. "We don't have to talk unless you want to..." As she sat down though, Lo noticed that Fin's left cheek was wet. "Fin? You've been crying," she remarked.

Immediately, Fin turned her face away from Lo, not saying a word and not wanting her to see she had been crying. "Okay, now I know something's wrong," Lo said, now becoming worried. "Fin, talk to me..._please_." She then put her hand on Fin's left shoulder, trying to get an answer. "Did Reef say something to get you upset?"

"No," a hesitant Fin replied quietly, still not looking at Lo.

Lo then gasped. "Did he _do_ something to upset you?" she asked.

"No," Fin said again. "It's not Reef, he didn't do anything."

"Oh," Lo said, knowing that Fin's response had removed her excuse to go and verbally rip Reef a new one for doing or saying something bad enough to hurt Fin. After a brief pause, something else dawned on Lo. "Wait, was it Bummer?" she wondered aloud. "Did _he_ say or do..."

"It's not Bummer either," Fin interrupted, then she turned to face Lo. "I just got some news about my dad," she said, emotion coming back into her voice.

"Oh, no," Lo said, now getting some idea what was troubling Fin. "What is it?"

"My mom called me an hour ago," Fin explained. "She told me Dad was in a car accident last night involving a drunk driver..."

Lo gasped again when she heard Fin's news. "How bad?" she asked.

"Real bad," Fin said, starting to become upset again over mentally replaying what her mother had told her. "He w-w-was taken to the hospital and...and th-th-the doctors tried to h-h-help him, but...but..." She was unable to bring herself to finish that sentence, as she then began to bawl.

Lo did not need to hear Fin finish her story, understanding its outcome. Starting to feel some emotion herself, then feeling a rush of compassion, she let Fin come to her and begin crying on her shoulder as she put her arms around her to comfort her. "I'm sorry, Fin," Lo said while holding her friend. "I'm sorry about your dad and what happened to him."

"Why did it happen to him?" Fin, who was as angry about the cause of her father's death as she was sad about the death itself, wailed as she clung to Lo and leaned her head against Lo's. "Why? Why did _he_ have to pay the price for the other driver's damn stupid mistake?"

"I wish I knew, Fin," Lo said, putting her right hand on the back of Fin's head to try to calm her. "I wish I knew."

As Fin continued sobbing on Lo's shoulder, she suddenly felt a few drops of liquid fall on the back of her own shoulder. "Lo?" she said, pulling away a moment. "Lo, are you crying too?" she added as she noticed that the hotel heiress also had tears streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry," Lo apologized with a nervous giggle. "It's not something I can help doing. I've always been empathetic to someone's suffering if it happens when they're near me. If they feel sad about something and they start crying, then I start to cry too." Fin then resumed crying on Lo's shoulder, and Lo wrapped her arms around Fin again and held her. "It's okay, Fin. You can cry as much as you want to, just let it out," Lo said softly, feeling more tears flow from her eyes and down her cheeks out of empathy as she continued to comfort the surfer girl and console her over her father's death. "I'm here for you."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, downstairs in the staff house living room, Reef, Ripper and Lance, now joined by Ty, had hooked up the game console from the guys' third-floor room to the widescreen TV and were getting ready to start their surfing video game tournament. Because Reef and the others had not been in the staff house at the time Fin ran upstairs to her room after she got her phone call from home, none of them (aside from Lo) were aware of the bad news Fin got, or of her current state of mind after the call.<p>

"Okay, everything's all set," Reef declared as he turned on the game deck and waited for it to warm up. "That means you all better get set for the uncrowned king of video games at Surfer's Paradise to claim his crown."

"More like the 'court jester' of video games, dude," Lance countered. "Once it's all said and done, I'll be the one taking the title."

"Is that so, mate?" Ripper joined in. "Look, Lance, you and me are best buds, but tonight, it's every man for himself in this tourney, and when we're done, I'll be the last man standing."

"Better be careful 'bout overestimating yourselves then, guys," Ty said. "While you're all debating who's gonna be the surfing video game king, someone may come in and take that crown right from under your noses - and that someone's gonna be me."

"We'll see about that, bra," Reef said.

"Okay, let's draw numbers to see who's gonna face who," Ty said while dropping folded slips of paper into a baseball cap. "Whoever draws 1 will face 3 in the first game, and 2 will face 4 in the second with the winners meeting in the final for all the marbles." The guys then each drew a slip of paper from the cap and unfolded them to see who drew which number.

"Yes! Right on!" Reef crowed triumphantly, showing off his slip of paper to the others. "I'm Number One! I'm Number One!"

Ripper grumbled to himself over Reef's bragging when he took a look at his paper. "I got 2," the Australian surfer said.

Lance then checked his paper. "I drew 3, so it looks like I got Reef in the first game," he said.

"Then that means Ty gets Ripper in the second," Reef said. "Okay Lance, step right up and prepare to meet your match."

"My match, huh?" Lance said, then he looked around the living room. "Sorry, I don't see him here," he joked, shrugging his shoulders. "Must've pulled a no-show."

A chagrined Reef glared at Lance, who laughed along with Ripper and Ty, but he refused to let Lance's joke stop him as the two surfers stepped up to play the first game in the STOKE tournament. With the simultaneous two-player setup, Reef and Lance maneuvered their way through the game's obstacle course to rack up points while watching out for hazards along the course route.

Reef and Lance ended up keeping the game a close one as each player made their way through each of the five men (represented by a surfboard in the game) allotted to them in the game, coming down to the last man each had. Lance had a slight edge over Reef in points going into the last leg of the game and seemed sure that he would take the win - when he began to feel a sneeze coming on. He tried twice to stifle the sneeze, but felt it coming back on him each time. When he tried a third time to stifle the sneeze, Lance was unable to stop it in time and he let out a loud sneeze, causing him to lose his balance and fall off his board simulator. With that, Lance's surfboard game sprite on the TV screen collided with a water buoy on the course, ending his last turn and the game for him.

"YES!" Reef said triumphantly, raising his arms in the air as he celebrated his win in the first game of the STOKE tournament. "Game over, _suckaaaa!_ One down, one to go!" Reef then jumped off his board and did a victory dance in the middle of the living room. "Lance my man, I'm Captain Kirk and you just got red-shirted!"

"Right, dude, real funny," Lance said as he got up, not too thrilled with Reef's obnoxious victory celebration or his post-game trash-talking, though he realized he brought it on himself in part by his pre-game ribbing of Reef. "Okay, Ripper, Ty, step on up," he then called to his friends. "You're next."

* * *

><p><strong>Next chapter, Lo, acting out of friendship, compassion and love, continues her efforts to console Fin. Plus, what will David do to impress Kelly during an evening together?<strong>


	5. Surfer Girl, Be Healed

**CHAPTER 5 - SURFER GIRL, BE HEALED  
><strong>

While the guys' video game tournament continued downstairs, Fin was still in the girls' room upstairs, now alone. Lo had left a few minutes earlier, promising to return after she went back to the hotel to run a small errand. In the meantime, Fin had laid down on her right side on her bed, curling up in a fetal position as her state of mind took a turn for the worse. She was shaking with fear as she lay in that position, playing in her mind what she worried she might deal with in the wake of her father's passing, and worried how she would deal with what she expected to face in the immediate future without him.

Usually, Fin faced any problems she had dealt with in the past head-on and with confidence, knowing that she would deal with those issues and get past them. This time, however, she was up against the most serious issue she ever had to face to date in her 16 years, and never in her young life had she felt as helpless, or as powerless, as she did right at that moment.

As Fin continued to lay curled up and shaking on her bed, Lo came back into the room and quietly closed the door behind her after finishing her errand at the hotel. Lo put down a scented candle she bought at the gift shop, one of the kinds of candles usually used at the hotel spa for aromatherapy purposes, on one corner of the nightstand between her bed and Fin's, then she struck a match and lit the candle with it. She then walked around to the other side of Fin's bed, bringing with her some bottled water she had also bought.

"Here, Fin," Lo said as she kneeled down at the side of the bed, offering her friend the bottle. "I got you some water in case you need it." When Fin did not respond right away, Lo raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay?" she asked out of concern.

"N-n-n-no," Fin stammered quietly, not really focusing on Lo. "N-n-not...okay."

A worried Lo then put her hand on Fin's left knee and realized that she was trembling. "Oh, Fin, you're shaking," she said. "You must really be in a bad spot over your dad."

"Don't...don't want...," Fin tried to speak while continuing to shake, still looking past Lo. "Don't...see me...like this..."

"Fin, listen to me," Lo said, lowering herself to Fin's eye level on the bed to look at her directly. "I understand you don't want anyone to see you're hurting over the loss of your dad. I know you want to be brave and tough around others and let them see you can handle anything you go up against. But this is just you and me here right now. You don't have to be tough around me like you are around everyone else." Acting out of compassion for Fin, Lo took the gentle approach as she spoke. "I'm here to help you if you'll let me. I want to help."

"I'm...a-afraid," Fin said, finally looking at Lo. "I...I can't...face it alone...," she continued, talking about dealing with her father's death. She then put her left hand on the edge of the bed. "Would you...help me?"

Understanding what Fin said about facing what lay ahead for her, Lo smiled and put her right hand on top of Fin's left. "I will," she said. "Give me a moment." She then stood back up and went over to get the pillows from both her bed and Emma's. "Sorry to steal your pillow, Em, I'll put it back later," she apologized as she tucked the pillows under her left arm, then she went to the room's closet and grabbed two more pillows from the top shelf. "Okay Fin, scoot over," she said to her friend as she placed the extra pillows against the headboard of Fin's bed.

"What...why?" a confused Fin asked.

Lo then kneeled back down beside Fin's bed, again making eye contact with her. "This is part of what I want to do to help," she said to Fin. "Let me sit and cuddle with you, if it'll help make you feel okay. I want you to feel better. That's what a friend would want for another when she feels sad."

Doing as Lo asked of her, Fin moved over to the other side of her bed, but otherwise did not uncurl from the fetal position she was in. Lo sat down on the bed and leaned back against the pillows propped in front of the headboard, then she checked to see how Fin was doing by placing her hand on Fin's left knee again. "You're still shaking," Lo noted as she felt her hand vibrate slightly, "but it's not as bad as it was before."

Knowing that Fin's family was clear across the country and that she had no relatives in Sunset Beach to be there for her in her time of need since Fin's grandmother returned to Halifax, Lo took it upon herself to act as a surrogate sister for her friend, to be there and comfort her. Taking it easy so as not to startle a still-scared Fin, Lo then moved her right hand over to Fin's left elbow and began to rub her left arm gently, moving back and forth between her elbow and her shoulder.

"I'm still...scared," Fin moaned meekly as she continued to tremble. "Don't know...what I'll do..."

"_Shhh_, it's okay, Fin," Lo said, keeping her voice soft and light to help calm and soothe Fin. "You don't have to worry about that now. Just come lay your head on my shoulder and relax." Fin, in spite of her state of mind at that point, managed to move herself enough in place so she could rest her head on Lo's left shoulder, allowing Lo to then move her left arm behind Fin's back so she could put her hand on the left side of Fin's waist for support.

"It's all right. I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere," Lo said softly as she cradled Fin in her arms and continued to gently rub the surfer girl's left arm. "You're safe here. Just relax and I'll help you feel better. I promise."

While she cuddled with and comforted Fin, Lo thought back to when she first met her future fellow groms following the end-of-school party she threw at the hotel which had led to her forced exile from the Ridgemount penthouse and her joining the hotel staff. Some of the gang, particularly Fin, had thought of Lo at first as a spoiled, pampered princess thanks to her initial choice to slack on the job or skip work to go shopping or to the spa while wanting to return to the penthouse. In due time though, Lo, thanks in part to Kelly's own change of attitude, was influenced to become a better person through her actions, which impressed Fin and the others and won their respect.

Since then, Lo came to regard Reef, Fin, Broseph and most of the staff (except for Bummer) as her friends through the adventures they shared together during the summer, including their common love of surfing. But now, thanks to the personal tragedy she saw Fin suffering through due to her father's death, Lo came to care deeply about Fin and her well-being. Seeing a chance to continue her redemption from her pre-party ways, Lo sought to help Fin heal her emotional wounds and help her through her time of mourning the loss of a loved one.

As Fin continued dealing with her mental anguish over her loss, she soon began to hear singing. Because she had focused internally on her suffering, the singing sounded distant to her at first, but her focus then began to turn toward the song when she noticed that a sweet-sounding voice was singing the wordless vocals. Brought back out of her shell, Fin looked and realized that the source of the song was Lo, who was using her beautiful singing voice with its high, haunting, light and ethereal notes to reach out to her friend, to ease her distress and to comfort and calm her.

Fin, who had kept her arms crossed over her chest with her hands on her shoulders while laying in the fetal position since Lo had first left on her errand and kept them crossed most of the time since then, then responded to Lo's singing by uncrossing her arms slowly and bringing her left arm over to put around Lo's waist as a sign of appreciation. Lo noticed this, but she continued singing another minute before she ended her song and looked to Fin. "How do you feel now, Fin?" she said softly with a smile.

"A...a little better," Fin replied in a low voice. After a brief pause, she asked Lo, "How do you know what to do for something like this?"

"My mom does the same thing for me sometimes when I feel really sad or depressed about something, cuddling with me and sometimes singing to me," Lo said. "It's always worked for me. When I saw what you were going through, I thought about what Mom would do for me and I wanted to try it here."

"Your mom must really love you and care about you enough to do that for you," Fin said.

"She does," Lo said, nodding. "I'll have to thank her for that next time I see her."

"You know something, Lo?" Fin said. "I have a feeling that when the time comes for you, you're going to make a really good mother yourself."

Lo was flattered and touched by what Fin told her. "_Aww_, thanks Fin," she said, smiling. "You want to know something else? I'm glad I was able to get through to you and bring you back around with my singing. I noticed it when you put your arm around my waist." When Fin blushed out of embarrassment, Lo noticed and giggled. "It's okay, Fin," she said reassuringly. "I understand you're not used to feeling vulnerable around anyone, but it's all right. You can be vulnerable with me, I won't give you a hard time about it. I know you're feeling that way now because of what happened to your dad."

"Thanks, Lo," Fin said, letting out a sigh of relief. "You're right though, your singing _did_ get through to me while I was putting myself through hell earlier. Now I know it was a good thing to have you as a part of the Surfing Songbirds for the talent show, because your singing really does sound beautiful."

"Thank you, Fin," a flattered Lo said with another smile. "I know you're not the only one who thinks so, but I'm glad you do." Taking comfort in Lo's words and gestures to help make her feel better, a more relaxed Fin continued to cuddle with Lo, who was more than happy to do what she could for her friend as she continued to cradle her.

* * *

><p>Down at the hotel pool in the meantime, Kelly had just finished swimming laps and emerged from the water to grab a towel and dry off at poolside, where David was towelling his hair dry near one of the sunloungers. Like Reef and the guys back at the staff house, Kelly and David had been elsewhere when Fin got her phone call from home, so neither of them were aware of the call or what happened to Fin after that.<p>

"Man, that felt great," an enthused David said as he finished drying off his hair. "Always feel pumped up after a good swim."

"You're feeling a lot better now than I was up 'til a few minutes ago," Kelly said while she dried off.

"Why, what's up?" David asked.

"It's something that happened just after I got back from lunch break, after the water fight with Lo, Fin and the girls Lo was babysitting," Kelly explained. "You know when we were talking earlier about those two bratty boys with the bad parents, the Marvin family? You remember being there with me in the theatre lobby when I told them they were banned from returning to eat at the DR here because of the boys' behavior and because their parents refused to keep them under control, right?"

"Sure," David said, also recalling that moment. "It was your right to do so at your discretion because those boys were acting out of control here and at the movies. Their parents don't really strike me as model parent material either."

"Well, Bummer showed up in the DR after I got back to work and told me he found out about me banning the Marvins from there," Kelly said. "So he overruled me and lifted the ban on them, then he gave me a strike for banning them in the first place. Right after that, the Marvins came right back in and their twin terrors picked right up where they left off last time they were there, running wild and causing havoc while their parents carried on at their table like nothing was going on. Several guests left the DR in frustration not long after because of those Marvin boys."

"I don't get it," a puzzled David said. "What kind of hotel manager would allow things like that to go on at their hotel? And what kind of manager would penalize you for doing the right thing for other guests? I thought this Bummer guy was all about pleasing hotel guests."

"Not so much as he is about helping the hotel rake in as much money as possible, it seems," Kelly said. "The Marvins spend a lot of money at the hotel and Bummer wants to keep it that way, even if it means he alienates some of the other guests by not doing anything about the Marvin kids."

"Well, my money is as good at the hotel as the Marvins' money is," David pointed out. "If I see Bummer around next time I eat at the Pirate Ship, I'm going to have a word with him about those boys. If what you said about him always trying to please customers is true, then he'll have to listen to me as well and do something to rein in those kids. If not, then I'll have to go over his head and go straight to Mr. Ridgemount."

"Thanks, David," Kelly said with a relieved sigh. "I'm glad someone not working at the hotel is willing to stand up to Bummer and right a wrong."

"Gladly," David agreed. "But let's forget about Bummer and the Marvins for now. I've got that song I promised you earlier." Picking up his acoustic guitar, which was resting against his sunlounger, David began strumming on the instrument, then began to sing while a wistful Kelly watched and listened:

_You walk in beauty like the night_  
><em>Of cloudless climes and starry skies;<em>  
><em>And all that's best of dark and bright<em>  
><em>Meet in your aspect and your eyes.<em>  
><em>Thus mellowed to that tender light<em>  
><em>Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.<em>

_One shade the more, one ray the less,_  
><em>Had half impaired the nameless grace<em>  
><em>Which waves in every auburn tress<em>  
><em>Or softly lightens over your face,<em>  
><em>Where thoughts serenely sweet express<em>  
><em>How pure, how clear their dwelling place.<em>

_And on that cheek, and over that brow,_  
><em>So soft, so calm, yet eloquent<em>  
><em>The smiles that win, the tints that glow,<em>  
><em>But tell of days in goodness spent,<em>  
><em>A mind at peace with all below,<em>  
><em>A heart whose love is innocent.<em>

When David finished the song, Kelly smiled and applauded politely, looking impressed with what she heard. "Oh, that sounded wonderful, David," she said. "I love it."

"I'm glad you feel that way," a pleased David said. "It's an old Lord Byron poem, but I wrote the music to fit to the words and changed a few of the words to play for you. I was working on it since after our first two dates and I finally finished it just before I came here last night." Putting his guitar down a moment, he added, "I know it's not really the same as writing an original song, but..."

Before David could finish his sentence, Kelly put the tip of her index finger to his mouth to silence him. "That's all right, David," she said with a smile. "The sentiment's there. I love it because that's the first time anyone's ever played a love song for me." Kelly then went to give David a big hug and said, "Thank you so much."

"You're more than welcome," David replied while putting his arms around Kelly as well. Slinging his guitar strap back over his shoulder with the guitar behind him, he then stood up with Kelly while keeping his right arm over her shoulders. "Ready for that beach walk?" he asked Kelly.

"Sure," Kelly replied, smiling while she put her left arm around David's waist. "And let's take that walk slow," she added as she and her boyfriend began strolling away from poolside. "I'm not in any hurry."

"With pleasure," David said, heading slowly toward the beach with Kelly as they checked out the sights and talked about whatever they felt like, both enjoying the moment.

* * *

><p><strong>Coming soon, Fin opens up to Lo some more as she tells her about her family's background. Plus, Reef meets his competition in the STOKE tournament final, and the entire gang learns about Fin's situation.<strong>

**The song performed by David for Kelly in this chapter (as noted above) is adapted from the Lord Byron poem "She Walks in Beauty", which is in the public domain.  
><strong>


	6. The Family Tree

**CHAPTER 6 - THE FAMILY TREE**

**Fin reveals her family's history in this chapter while talking with Lo, including why she feels Lo's mother is cooler than her own (a nod to "Slumber Party Animals" from Season One). Some of the dialogue later in this chapter, during the STOKE tournament final, also comes from S2's "Surf Surf Revolution".**

**Emperor of the Animal Kingdom - like most other _Stoked_ fans, I also didn't like the OOC characterization the show's writers gave Lo during some Season Two episodes, which was why I chose to stay true to her original personality from S1 and expand on it in some of my more recent fanfics. The OOC depiction of Lo on the show this season seems more suited to my other _Stoked_ OC, Rebekka Drake, anyway. And if you thought Bummer was bad in Chapter Five, wait 'til you see what's coming in Chapters Seven and Eight...  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Back at the staff house, Fin, whose emotional well-being had slowly improved over the last while thanks to Lo's intervention, was still cuddling with Lo in the girls' room. To help keep Fin's mind off of the frightened feelings she had been overwhelmed by earlier in connection with her father's death, Lo talked with her about anything that was on the blonde tomboy's mind, from surfing to boys (including Reef) to what Halifax was like.<p>

"So what's your family like?" Lo asked, broaching a subject Fin had not talked much about during her time at Surfer's Paradise. "Besides your grandma, all we really know about them from you is that you have a sister and four brothers, but you haven't said much else about them."

"There's not much to say about them," Fin said, preferring to change the subject.

"_Aww_, c'mon," Lo begged Fin in a friendly manner. "There must be something about your family you could tell me."

Fin thought about it a moment. "Well," she began, "you know when I told you at grom initiation about my three older brothers, the ones who made me eat worms when I was five? Well, they're really just my half-brothers."

"_Ooohh_, I can see a story coming," a grinning Lo said.

"It started back in 1986, when my mom was taking Office Assistant courses at a community college back home," Fin explained. "During her freshman year, she met a guy named Randy, who was taking one of the trades programs at the college. She and Randy clicked pretty quickly and they started dating not long after. Mom liked him, but for some reason, Grandma and Grandpa weren't crazy about him.

"Then some time after they started dating and moved in together, Mom got pregnant," Fin continued. "Then just before she was to start her second year of her college program, she gave birth to my oldest brother, Terry. It wasn't easy for Mom that year, juggling school with raising a baby, but she made it work and Grandma and Grandpa helped out a bit. It also helped that Randy got a job as a freelance carpenter to help support Mom and Terry."

"Not bad," Lo said. "So did they ever get married?"

"They were planning to, but it never happened," Fin said. "Just after Mom got her Office Assistant certificate and got an office job as a secretary, she became pregnant again, this time with twins. But right then, Randy's attitude changed. He only wanted one kid and he wasn't willing to have more. He and Mom started having arguments about her pregnancy and what to do about it.

"Then one morning during her fourth month, Mom woke up and found a note on the pillow beside her on her and Randy's bed," Fin went on. "She read it and found out that Randy was leaving her because she stuck to her guns on her pregnancy and wouldn't budge. Randy never said where he was going, and that was the last she ever saw or heard of him. She was really hurt at first about him leaving, but Grandma helped her through it and she got over him quick."

"_Ohh_, what a pig!" a displeased Lo said about Randy. "How could he do that to your mom, leaving her alone with one child and two more on the way?"

"I think that's one of the reasons Grandma never approved of Randy," Fin said. "Then a while after Randy took off, Mom met someone new, a dock worker at the Port of Halifax, named Mike. He's the one who's my dad. He and Mom started seeing each other and it didn't bother him in the least that she already had a son and two more kids coming. He was there for her when she had twin boys, my other two older brothers Marty and Dan. About a year later, Mom and Dad got married, though Mom chose to keep her maiden name McCloud, just like Grandma did before her.

"Even before they got married, Dad helped Mom to raise Terry, Marty and Dan," Fin added. "As far as they're concerned, Dad's the only father my big brothers had ever known and he was a father to them in every way that counted. Then a few years later, I came along, the first child Mom had with Dad."

"_Aww_, that sounds sweet," Lo gushed. "Good thing, too. If Randy had had his way, your mom wouldn't have met your dad and you wouldn't be here now to tell the story."

"True that," Fin agreed. Feeling her throat get a bit dry from telling her story, she then asked Lo, "Could you pass me that water, please?"

"Sure," said Lo, who reached behind Fin to get the water bottle on the near corner of the nightstand, then opened it and passed it to her. While Fin took a sip from the bottle, Lo said, "Then your sister Sam came next, right?"

"Yep, about two years after me," Fin said after she finished taking her drink from the water bottle. "Then my youngest brother, Josh, was the last one. Being in a family with six kids wasn't always easy, but we did all right for ourselves."

"Does everyone else in your family surf like you do?" Lo asked.

"Besides Grandma, there's just me, Sam and Terry who surf," Fin said. "Marty and Dan both don't like surfing. Josh wants to take it up, but Mom won't let him. Dad didn't surf, but he was supportive of me, Sam and Terry all taking up surfing to follow in Grandma's footsteps. Mom doesn't surf either and she doesn't approve of us surfing - in fact, she and I've had quite a few arguments about it in the past when she tried to forbid me to surf and she took it as me being rebellious when I said I was gonna do it anyway."

"Wow, no wonder you said my mom was cooler than your own when we had that slumber party in the penthouse back in June," Lo commented.

"And I still stick by it," said Fin, who considered Mrs. Ridgemount to be what she wished her own mother would be more like. "I'm just glad Dad stood by me and convinced Mom to let me take up surfing. He and Grandma were also in my corner when I wanted to come here to work for the summer instead of working at the Tastie Freezie back home, like Mom wanted. She wasn't happy at first about me coming here 'cause I wanted to surf here too, but she gave in when she realized I'm growing up and I can make my own decisions."

"Good," Lo said with a grin. "I'm glad your dad and your grandma were able to convince your mom to have enough faith in you to let you come here."

"Yeah, me too," Fin said. After a pause, she added, "But I'm worried that with Dad gone, I may have lost the clout I needed with Mom over the whole surfing thing. I'm also worried about how the family's going to handle Dad being gone and how we're going to get by with only Mom raising me, Sam and Josh while doing it on a secretary's salary. And what if Mom meets someone new and the new guy turns out to be a real..."

"Easy, Fin," Lo said. "You can't let yourself get worked up like this. If you obsess needlessly over things that may or may not happen, it'll just end up crippling you. I don't want to see you ending up like I found you when I came back from the hotel earlier."

"I know," Fin said with a nod. "I just had them all on my mind when you came back."

"Don't worry," Lo said reassuringly. "I know you well enough by now to know that whatever comes your way after what you've been through, I know you'll face it head-on and with confidence."

"Thanks, Lo," Fin replied with a smile, feeling grateful to her friend for going out of her way to help her. "I'm glad you could be here for me to do what you could when I needed someone. You're a sweetheart to be willing to do it." Regardless of how she had originally felt about Lo when she first met her that first week at the hotel, Fin, like the rest of the gang, had come to appreciate Lo for the kindness, selflessness, generosity and inner beauty she had displayed several times since then, the latest example of which she had shown to Fin over the last hour and a half. Because of that, Fin now came to regard Lo, not just as a friend, but like an extra sister to her.

"I'm happy to help," Lo said with her own smile. "And if you want me to stay here with you as long as you need me to, I will."

"Sure," Fin said. "I'd appreciate that." After another pause, she then raised her head from Lo's shoulder to look at her friend. "Lo?"

"Yeah, Fin?" Lo responded.

"I love you," Fin said in a heartfelt manner. It was the first time she had ever said those three words to anyone aside from her parents or her grandmother, and she had said them to Lo in deep appreciation for all she said and did for her since she told Lo of her father's passing.

To Lo, hearing Fin tell her she loved her was like music to her ears, just as much as if she had heard her mother or her father say it to her. "_Awww_, thank you so much, Fin," a deeply touched Lo said softly. "I love you too." To emphasize that sentiment, she then gave Fin a gentle kiss on her cheek. With that, an appreciative Fin lay her head down on Lo's left shoulder again and closed her eyes, and a caring Lo leaned her cheek against the top of Fin's head while she continued to hold her in her arms and cuddle with her, happy that she was able to relieve some of her friend's emotional suffering.

After a few moments of not saying anything, but just sitting together with Fin on her bed while comforting her, a thought crossed Lo's mind. "Fin, were Broseph and the others expecting you at the Office?" she asked.

"Yeah, they were," Fin answered. "I told Broseph, Emma and Johnny I'd be there to join them. They must be wondering by now why I pulled a no-show."

"Well, I think they deserve to know why," Lo said, taking out her iPhone. "I got to call them and the others."

"What?" a surprised Fin said. "No-no-no-no-no!" She grabbed Lo's hand, the one holding her phone, to keep her from dialing it. "Please, Lo. Don't tell anyone else about what happened," she said, imploring Lo not to call the rest of the gang. "I don't want everyone knowing about my dad and what happened to him last night." By "everyone", Fin also referred in particular to Reef, who she worried might try to tease her about her situation.

"Why not?" Lo said. "Fin, it's okay. You have a lot of friends here and they'll understand about your dad. If you don't tell them, they'll start wondering over the next few days why you're not your usual chipper self and they'll start asking questions. What're you going to tell them, you're fine?" Lo put her left arm over Fin's shoulders, trying to ease her friend's concerns. "Trust me, Fin," she said reassuringly with a smile. "Everyone will be supportive of you and they'll help you through this. Broseph, Emma, Johnny, Kelly, Ripper...the whole gang. They'll all be there for you, like I am now. Okay?"

Fin let out a sigh of resignation. "Okay, go ahead and call," she said with a nod.

"And don't worry about Reef," Lo said, seemingly figuring out what Fin was worried about. "I don't think he'll tease you about it, but if he does, I'll kick his butt for you. Deal?" Lo's last comment got a chuckle out of Fin, which made the rich girl smile as she began searching her friends' stored numbers to speed-dial.

* * *

><p>Back at the hotel pool, Kelly and David were relaxing in a hammock not far from the Snack Shack kiosk, just after returning from their walk on the beach. "<em>Mmm<em>, that walk was worth the hard work at the DR earlier," a contented Kelly said while snuggling near David. "My feet are thanking me already for walking on the sand while the water washed ashore around our feet."

"You and me both," David agreed. "That walk gave me a chance to check out parts of Sunset Island that I haven't seen from the beach before. If I had my iPod with me with summer songs on it to listen to, it would've made the perfect soundtrack to our walk and the sights we saw along the way."

"Yeah, like the stars we're starting to see since the sun set," Kelly said, looking up at the sky.

"Too bad for all the lights here at the hotel," David pointed out. "If the power went out here right this minute, it'd give us the chance to see a lot more of them, maybe even a shooting star or two."

"Last time I had that chance before I started working here was two summers ago," Kelly said. "I went out of town with a few friends to this lake one night after sunset, just a few kilometres southwest of Nanaimo. We went to hang out there and some of us went swimming in the lake, but the best thing about that night was checking out the night sky and all the stars we could see at the lake without all the light pollution coming from town to dim them. We even saw a few shooting stars go by while we were there. David, I wish I could've known you back then so you could be there...the sky just looked awesome that night."

"I've done that a few times too, checking out the stars with friends on trips up in the Lake Cowichan area," David said. "On nights like those when you see all those stars there, it just makes you chill out and forget all your troubles - like the one you had with Bummer earlier."

"Bummer who?" Kelly said with a giggle, showing she would not let the hotel manager, or the later problems she had with the Marvin boys at the Pirate Ship, bother her.

"Exactly," David said with a grin. "We got the night to ourselves, so let's enjoy it."

"Agreed," Kelly said before giving David a small kiss. "So, what do you feel like doing tomorrow night?"

"Haven't thought that far ahead," David said. "Right now, I'm just enjoying this moment."

"Yeah, me too," Kelly said, letting out a blissful sigh.

"I think we could go see a movie tomorrow," David suggested. "What's playing over at the Big Wave Theatre right now?"

"Nothing really worth seeing," Kelly said flatly. "Remember when I said all the Kahuna shows there most of the time is surfing movies? If I had my car here, I could drive out to Campbell River or Courtenay to catch a show."

"Not a problem," David said. "I can check what's playing where on my iPhone, and my rental car's parked near the hotel, so we can drive over to whichever show you want to see. We can make a night of it by going out for dinner near whichever theatre you pick before the show, too."

"Sounds good to me," Kelly said wistfully, then she turned to look at David. The couple gazed into each other's eyes for a few moments, then Kelly tilted her head slightly and inched slowly toward David, indicating that she wanted to kiss him again, this time a longer and more meaningful kiss. Catching on to Kelly's subtle signal, David also began moving toward Kelly, looking forward to kissing her full lips again.

As Kelly and David were half an inch away from their lips meeting, however, their would-be kiss was interrupted when David's phone began ringing in his right jeans pocket. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me," David groaned as he reached for his phone, not really appreciating the interruption. "I hope it's not anyone from work back home calling. I told them only to call me if it was a 911 situation."

"Who'd be calling you at this time of night?" Kelly wondered.

"Let's find out," David said as he pulled out the phone and checked the call display. "Lo?" he remarked upon recognizing her number. "I wonder what she wants?"

"How come you have her number, anyway?" a curious Kelly asked.

"Same reason you each have the other's number on your speed dial, in case you need to reach the other," David said. He then hit the talk button on his iPhone and raised it to his ear. "Hey Lo, what's up?" he greeted her.

"Hi, David," Lo replied. "Is Kelly with you right now?"

"She sure is," David said. "Did you want to talk to her?"

"I tried calling her on her phone, but it kept going to voice mail, so she must've turned her phone off," Lo explained. "Can you put your phone on speaker? I actually need to talk to both of you, it's urgent."

"Sure thing," said David, who then engaged speaker mode on his phone. "Okay Lo, go ahead,"

"Fin's not feeling good right now," Lo said. "She just found out her dad was in a car accident last night involving a drunk driver. Her dad died of his injuries some time this morning and she only found out about two and a half hours ago."

"Oh, no," said a concerned Kelly, whose friendship with Fin had developed since she began getting surfing lessons with David from her several weeks earlier. "Sorry to hear that, Lo. Where's Fin now?"

"She's with me back at the staff house," Lo said. "She was crying when I found her in our room earlier and she's feeling sad and angry about what happened. She could really use someone to be there for her right now."

As Lo spoke on the phone, Kelly and David looked at each other a moment, then Kelly nodded and silently mouthed the words "It's okay", stating that going to see Fin in her hour of need would be all right. "Say no more, Lo," David said before hanging up. "We'll be there in a bit."

While they began getting out of the hammock, Kelly looked to David. "Thanks for understanding, David," she said with a small smile.

"No worries," David responded, taking Kelly's hand. "Fin's your friend, and she's mine too. If one of us were in the same situation, she'd be there for us, no question."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile at the Office, Broseph, Emma and Johnny glided to shore on their surfboards after finishing off riding another set of waves. "Dudes, those waves tonight were boss!" Broseph declared. "Did you see the height I got off that last one?"<p>

"Sure did," Johnny said as he picked his board up from the water. "If you did that move at Gromfest, that'd get you into the top ten for sure."

"It would if I _were _gonna be in Gromfest - which I'm not," Broseph reminded Johnny. "Remember what I said 'bout me and surfing for trophies?"

"This would've been more fun if Fin was here," Emma said, noting the blonde tomboy's conspicuous absence. "She said she'd be here, so why wouldn't she show?"

"Good point," Johnny said. "It's not like Fin to miss out on a surf sesh. She and surfing are like a duck and water."

As Johnny finished speaking, he and the two groms heard the sound of a cell phone ringing close by. Emma recognized the ring right away and sprinted toward her pink jean shorts, which she had worn over her bikini bottom while heading to the Office and left on a log before going surfing, then took her iPhone from the right pocket. "I think we'll find out about Fin soon enough, it's Lo calling," the ponytailed redhead said when she saw Lo's number on her call display, then she answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, Emma," Lo replied at the other end. "How's your session at the Office with Broseph and Johnny?"

"Good, awesome ten-footers out here tonight," Emma said. "Oh, and have you seen Fin around? She was supposed to join us here and she never showed."

"That's why I called," Lo said. "Put your phone on speaker so you can all hear me." When Emma put her phone in speaker mode, she gathered Broseph and Johnny around her to listen. "Fin's with me in the staff house right now," Lo continued, explaining to her friends about Fin's father and his fatal car accident.

Emma gasped when Lo gave her the news. "How's Fin feeling?" she asked.

"Not very good," Lo said. "She was feeling in a bad way when I found her in our room. She really needs someone to be there for her now."

"Tell her to hang in there," Broseph said with a sense of urgency. "We'll be up in a minute." Broseph, Emma and Johnny then grabbed their boards and hit the trail leading back toward the staff house.

* * *

><p>During the time Lo had been consoling Fin, the STOKE tournament continued downstairs in the staff house living room. After Reef advanced to the final in the first game by narrowly edging out Lance, Ripper and Ty faced off in the second game, with Ripper claiming the win. The final showdown now came down to Reef and Ripper, who had kept the contest a close one for the last 45 minutes while Lance and Ty watched from the living room couch.<p>

Over the game's course, Reef and Ripper had made their way up to its 13th level, snaring bonus points and getting extra lives with each 50,000 points scored. With each new level though, the game course became more challenging and the two finalists were now each down to their last man, but they rose to the occasion and forced each other to compete harder and to up their game to the next level.

"How come you're not getting tossed off your board, mate?" Ripper said, trying to taunt Reef.

"Guess I'm just better than you, dude," Reef retorted.

"_Ha!_ We'll see 'bout that," Ripper said.

Not long after, Reef completed the course and netted a bonus for being the first to finish, taking the game up to Level 14. Ripper, determined not to lose to Reef, kept up with the cocky surfer while battling from behind. "Did you see my virtual 360, bro?" Reef bragged. "Best one yet!"

"Yeah," Ripper replied. "But I've been workin' on my virtual air, so get ready to eat virtual sand, mate!"

"Then bring it," Reef said, "'cause I am the King of STOKE!"

As the level advanced, Ripper caught up with Reef and, thanks to a couple of lucky breaks, finished the course first and got his bonus, moving the game to Level 15 and putting the players neck-and-neck scorewise. "You sure you wanna do that, mate?" Ripper taunted Reef again as he watched his opponent pull off a daring move with his game sprite. "Looks tricky! Maybe make like you're on a real board - oh wait, that'd mean eating surf!" he said with a laugh.

"I'll leave the 'eating surf' part to you, dude," Reef said. "You look like you're good at it!" Reef's counter-taunt earned him a glare from Ripper as the two players continued their virtual surf battle.

Reef soon held a slight edge over Ripper in points, but the Australian surfer held his ground and kept up, refusing to allow Reef to get the better of him. Seeing an opportunity to get another point surge and get enough to earn another life in the game, Reef was about to make a big move when Lo, accompanied by Fin, came into the living room from upstairs. "Hey guys, there's something I have to tell you," Lo said.

"What?" Reef said, distracted by Lo's words. When he saw Fin standing beside Lo, Reef lost his concentration and, with it, his balance, falling off his board with a yelp and leading to his surfboard sprite straying into the path of a shark on the TV screen. The virtual shark bit the surfboard sprite in two, ending his last turn and, ultimately, the game.

"YES! WOO-_HOOOO!_" a triumphant Ripper yelled, jabbing his fist in the air as he jumped victoriously off his board. At the same time, Lance and Ty leaped up cheering from the couch and hoisted Ripper up on their shoulders, chanting "Ripper! Ripper! Ripper!" while celebrating his win in the STOKE tournament.

"Who's the King of STOKE now, mate?" Ripper called down gleefully to Reef, who did not look happy to lose a close tournament final thanks to the distraction moments earlier as he glared at a jubilant Ripper while still on the floor.

Lo and Fin, meanwhile, glanced at each other with puzzled looks, wondering what the big deal was over the guys' celebration before Lo turned her attention back to them. "Hey, GUYS!" Lo repeated herself, yelling to get their attention.

Reef, Ripper, Lance and Ty turned to look at Lo and Fin when they heard the rich girl yell. "What?" they all said in unison.

"I got some bad news to tell you," Lo told the guys. "Fin's dad was in a car accident last night involving a drunk driver," she said while indicating Fin, who had a sad look on her face, on her left. "Her dad died of his injuries this morning and she's been devastated about it since she found out around suppertime earlier."

"What?" Ripper said, getting down from Lance and Ty's shoulders to sprint over to Fin. "Is that true, love?" he asked while putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Afraid so," Fin said with a sniffle, nodding her head.

Just then, Kelly and David came through the staff house's front door, followed moments later by Broseph, Emma and Johnny, all of them having Fin on their minds. "Lo told us what happened, Fin," Kelly said as she walked up to Fin, then walked her over to the couch and sat down beside her. "I'm really sorry," the Pirate Ship manager added as she began rubbing Fin's back with her left hand. "Is there anything we can do or get for you?"

"Not right now, but thanks," Fin said, giving Kelly a small smile as she shed a tear.

"You want to talk about it, chiquita?" Broseph, who had also sat down beside Fin on her left, asked.

A hesitant Fin paused a moment before she answered. "Sure," she said quietly.

Lo then sat down on the coffee table in front of Fin and most of the rest of the gang gathered around the couch while Fin talked about what she learned of her father's accident and what she went through afterward. While everyone else present offered their sympathies and support to Fin, Reef, however, kept his distance as he stood apart from the rest of the group and simply watched from the sidelines. He wanted to approach Fin, to offer his condolences and to be there for her as well, but he seemed unsure of doing so, wary of how Fin would react to his attempt to console her.

* * *

><p><strong>Reef's reaction to the news of the death of Fin's father, and how he initially dealt with it, seems pretty telling, doesn't it? He wants to help Fin, but his concern that she'll take it the wrong way and make assumptions about his motives (given their history) is so far keeping him from doing it. How will he approach handling the subject with Fin? Check it out next chapter.<strong>

**Also, trouble erupts when Bummer clashes with Fin over her situation.**


	7. The Clash

**CHAPTER 7 - THE CLASH**

**The newest chapter is up as Reef attempts to smooth things over with Fin and explain why he couldn't approach her to console her last chapter (ReeFin fans, take heart! I think you'll enjoy this. :D ). What happens later when Bummer makes the mistake of not believing Fin's story is the reason I gave this chapter its name.**

**Warning: Some intense dialogue from Fin, including a bit of coarse language, near chapter's end.**

* * *

><p>The next morning, Reef emerged from the staff locker room, ready to go to work teaching surfing to hotel guests, when he spotted Fin nearby, dressed in her yellow and purple maid's uniform, about to head to the elevators to go clean guest rooms again after her day off. Sprinting for the elevators, Reef ran toward Fin, calling "Hey Fin, wait up!"<p>

Fin turned her head to see who was calling her, then scowled when she saw Reef running to her. "What do you want?" she said curtly, not feeling much like dealing with Reef that morning.

"I just wanted to talk to you," Reef said as soon as he stopped beside Fin.

"Well, I don't feel like talking to you," Fin said with her arms crossed.

"It's about last night and what Lo said," Reef explained. "I wanted to be supportive of you..."

"No kidding," Fin interrupted sarcastically. "Yeah, you were _reeeal_ supportive alright. I saw you standing away from the rest of the gang while I was talking to them."

"Fin, that's not..." Reef started to speak.

"What were you planning to do, tease me about what happened?" Fin interrupted again. "Were you gonna use my father's death as an excuse to get some more digs in on me like you usually do? If so, then you can keep your so-called 'support'! I don't need..."

"Fin, will you..."

"And what are you even doing here, anyway?" Fin cut in for a third time. "How come you're not out teaching those bikini babes you like so much how to 'rip up the waves' instead of being here wasting your time with me? If you got no real reason to be supportive of me after what I've been through..."

"You see, Fin?" Reef then interrupted back, needing to get a word in edgewise. "This is exactly why I kept my distance last night while everyone else was there for you. I try to give you a sympathetic ear and you jump to conclusions and assume that I'm gonna tease you or rib you. That's exactly what I was worried would happen, so that's why I gave you your space then."

"Reef..." Fin tried to say.

"Fin, just shut up for a minute and let me say something!" Reef said, making Fin's mouth drop open in surprise and leaving her speechless for a moment. "Look, I realize you were hurt about what happened to your dad Friday night. I heard every word you said to the gang about what your mom told you and what you went through afterward.

"What I'm trying to say is that I really am sorry for what happened," Reef continued. "I know I tease you about a lot of things, but the death of someone you love is not one of those things. You're going through a rough time right now and I totally understand that. I'd never bug someone about losing a parent, or a grandparent, or a best friend 'cause that's not how I am."

Fin was stunned momentarily by what Reef told her. "Oh...wow," she said, realizing she had been mistaken about him in that instance. "You really feel that way?"

"Sure as I'm standing here," Reef said. "I just want to say I'm really sorry about you losing your dad. I know just how you feel about it."

"Ah," Fin said with a nod. "So you know how I feel, huh? Did your dad die too?" After a brief-but-awkward pause, she added, "I'm only asking because I know your mom was the only one of your folks who came here to see you a few weeks ago. If it's awkward for you to talk about it..."

"No, no, that's not it," Reef said. "Actually, Pop's not dead, he and Moms got divorced when I was 10 and he moved up north to Yellowknife to get work there. I still see Pops from time to time when he comes back to Muskoka to visit though."

"Oh, okay," Fin said, now understanding what Reef meant. After another pause, she then said apologetically, "Reef, I'm sorry about jumping down your throat earlier and assuming things when I shouldn't have. You wanted to offer your sympathies and I was a total cow to you in response. You didn't deserve that from me."

"That's okay," Reef said. "You had your suspicions and I didn't help matters much by ribbing you before. But as long as you and me are okay, that's what counts." After Reef and Fin took a moment to look at each other and smile, Fin made her move first and went over to hug Reef, then the two wrapped their arms around each other and held onto that hug for a few moments.

* * *

><p>Over at the Pirate Ship, Lo and Emma were discreetly watching at the restaurant's entrance while Fin and Reef were talking. "<em>Ooohh<em>, I _knew_ something was up between those two," Lo said with a mile-wide grin on her face. "Do you think they're going to kiss?"

"I don't know," Emma said while trying to lip-read what Reef and Fin were saying to each other. "They were arguing at first, but it's settled down since then. I sure wish I knew what they were talking about."

As Lo and Emma continued to watch, Kelly came up behind them. "Okay you two, what's going on?" the dining lounge's head waitress and manager asked out of curiosity.

Lo turned her head to find Kelly standing behind her and Emma. "You gotta see this," Lo said, pointing her thumb toward the lobby. "I think we're going to get a little action between Fin and Reef over there."

Kelly then joined Lo and Emma to watch as the exchange between Reef and Fin continued. When the three Pirate Ship waitresses saw the moment where Reef and Fin stopped talking long enough to look at each other and then hug, Emma and Lo turned from the entrance and began squealing happily and bouncing in place while Kelly raised an eyebrow and smirked at her employees' girlish display of enthusiasm. "That was _sooo_ sweet!" Lo exclaimed.

"Too bad they didn't kiss, but the hug was the next best thing," Emma said.

"Okay, you've both seen the Reef and Fin Show," Kelly told Emma and Lo as she shooed them away from the entrance. "Now let's get back to work." As they returned to their order rounds, Lo and Emma looked at each other and giggled while remembering what they saw Fin and Reef do moments before.

* * *

><p>Back in the lobby while she and Reef continued hugging, Fin heard her iPhone begin to ring in the pocket of her maid's apron. "Oh great, now what?" she grumbled as she reached into the pocket to take out her phone. She checked out the phone's display screen and discovered it was a text message from her sister Sam, which read:<p>

_Fin_  
><em>Dad's funeral goes Thurs. 1 PM.<em>  
><em>B here by Wed. C U then.<em>  
><em>Sam<em>

Reef had a look at the text with Fin when it appeared. "Oh, so your dad's funeral's gonna be this week, huh?" he said.

"That's how it looks," Fin said. "The trick to this now is how to convince Bummer to let me take a few days off to fly back home, attend the funeral and then come back here to finish out the summer. After what happened a few weeks ago, I'm not so sure Bummer's going to believe me about my dad."

"Yeah, but that was a different sitch," Reef said. "What's happening now, that's the real thing. How can Bummer refuse to let you go back when you've really had a death in the family?"

Fin thought about it a moment. "Good point," she replied, agreeing about what Reef said. "What could it hurt to try..."

Before Fin could finish, Bummer then walked up to Fin and Reef. "Okay, you two," the day manager said, interrupting their conversation. "Am I paying you to stand around and make water cooler talk?"

"_Uhh_...is that a trick question?" Reef asked rhetorically with a raised eyebrow.

"Can it, Reef!" Bummer replied. "You need to get out to the beach and do what your job description says, teaching our guests how to surf! And Fin," he added as he turned to her, "those guest room toilets don't clean themselves, so get your cleaning cart and get cracking! And by the way, I hope you enjoyed your day off yesterday because that's the last one you're getting until the end of the tourist season on Labor Day!"

As Bummer walked away and Reef took off for the beach, Fin thought again about Reef's words and figured it would not hurt to at least go and ask her boss for time off to attend her father's funeral. Turning from the elevators, Fin sprinted back toward Bummer, calling "Hey Baumer, wait up! I need to ask you something!"

"What do you want now?" Bummer asked when he turned around and saw Fin coming.

"It's something really important," Fin said, figuring she would simply cut to the chase. "I need a few days off this week."

"What for?" Bummer said, his suspicion about Fin's request now piqued.

"It's a family emergency," Fin explained. "My dad was killed in a car accident yesterday and I need to go back home for his funeral."

"Oh, _really?_" Bummer said in a sarcastic tone. "Well, if it's that important to you, then I'll give you your time off - on one condition."

Fin did not like where Bummer was going. "W-what's that?" she asked.

"Produce a corpse," Bummer told Fin.

"_What?_" Fin said, shocked at Bummer's demand.

"You heard what I said," Bummer stated. "I remember last month when you used the fake 'death in the family' excuse then to get out of work so you could go surfing with Reef, Broseph and Johnny. So if what you're saying really is true, then you'll do the same thing I asked of you then - show me your old man's corpse and I'll let you go, otherwise I'll just assume you're trying to slack off and go surfing again on company time."

Fin was stunned and aghast at what Bummer asked of her, and she also felt some anger at the level of mistrust he was showing her in light of what she had been through. "How can you even _ask_ me something like..." she attempted to protest, but Bummer cut her off.

"That's my word on the issue," Bummer said. "Prove to me your old man's really dead and you'll get your time off, or no dice! Now get to work!" The hotel manager then walked off and headed to the hotel pool entrance, leaving Fin with her mouth hanging open in shocked silence at his callous attitude toward her situation.

* * *

><p>Despite Bummer's denial of her request for time off, Fin was determined to get her leave so she could go home for her father's funeral. On Monday, she tried three times to ask Bummer, who shot down her request all three times and gave her a strike on her third try for making the request. On Tuesday, Bummer stayed in his office most of the day, with strict orders not to be disturbed unless Mr. Ridgemount called, specifically to avoid Fin.<p>

On late Wednesday afternoon, Fin was coming from the staff locker rooms after changing the apron of her maid outfit when she ran into Johnny in the lobby. "Hey Johnny, I'm glad I found you first," she said. "I finally got just what I need to convince Bummer to let me go back home for my dad's funeral."

"Okay, let's see what you got," Johnny said, curious to see what Fin had.

Fin then took out a newspaper clipping from her apron pocket to show Johnny. "Grandma phoned me on Sunday and told me she'd send me a clipping of Dad's obituary with the funeral details from the paper back home by express mail as soon as it was published," she explained. "The obituary was printed in Monday's paper and I got it when the mail came just before lunch today. When Bummer sees this, he's gonna have to let me have my time off."

"He's not easy to convince," Johnny said, "so let's hope it works for you this time."

"Sure hope so too," Fin agreed with a nervous laugh. Just then, she spotted Bummer walking through the lobby and she began running toward him. "Hey Baumer, hold on a minute!" she called.

Bummer rolled his eyes as soon as he saw Fin. "If it's another request for time off, my answer's still no," he said while crossing his arms.

"But I have something here that'll prove what I've been telling you is true," Fin said, handing Bummer the obituary to look at. "I got it in the mail today from back home in Halifax." While Bummer studied the obituary, Fin added, "I'm getting desperate here. I have to be back home by early tomorrow morning local time and the last seaplane to Victoria tonight so I can catch a flight home leaves in about an hour and a half. That's why I need you to say yes and sign off on my time off right now."

"_Hmm_," Bummer said to himself as he read the obituary over, but as he reached the end, his ingrained mistrust of the groms kicked in. "Nice try Fin, but I'm not convinced," he said, still believing that Fin was only making up the death in her family. "I think you had this printed up in one of those joke newspapers that lets anybody put in phony articles to fool people. Too bad for you, but I'm not letting you cut work to get extra surfing in."

To make matters worse, Bummer then crumpled up the obituary and threw it over his shoulder as he spoke, causing Fin's mouth to drop open in horrified shock as a "What the hell?" look crossed her face and her right eye began to twitch. Adding insult to injury, Bummer then said, "And by the way, that's Strike Two for you! Now unless you want to try for Strike Three and a trip to the unemployment line, GET BACK TO WORK!", pointing toward the elevators as he yelled his order at Fin.

As Bummer turned and walked away toward the front desk, Fin's arms dropped to her sides and she clenched her fists while her stunned look was replaced by one of outright anger. Infuriated by the disrespect and lack of trust her boss showed her regarding her personal tragedy, she stood up straight while firmly uttering one word: "No!"

Fin's defiant statement caught Bummer's attention. "What was _that?_" he said tersely as he turned and marched back toward the blonde surfer girl.

"You heard me," a scowling Fin said as she turned her head to see Bummer coming. "I said no!"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Bummer said, stopping in front of Fin. "Now do as I told you and get back to work, or I'll..."

"You'll do _what?_" Fin snapped angrily at Bummer as she spun around to face him. "Fire me? Give me another strike? Take away my right to surf when I'm off-duty? Give me unpaid overtime as punishment? WHAT?"

Bummer was momentarily taken aback by Fin's comments. "Hey, dial it down a notch or two," he said, trying to defuse the tense situation. "What's your problem, anyway?"

"What's my problem?" Fin, now feeling enraged, said to Bummer in a low, menacing tone, making the hotel manager regret what he said to her as soon as he said it. "What's _my_ problem?" she repeated, her voice rising as she felt her face flushing red with anger and her fists clenched again. "Let me ask you something, _Bummer_... What the bloody hell IS YOUR DAMAGE?" Fin's sudden, explosive verbal tirade against Bummer began to draw attention from around the lobby as people stopped in their tracks to see what was happening. Lo and Emma, who were on duty in the Pirate Ship, stopped for a moment and ran to the restaurant entrance to see Fin's tongue-lashing of Bummer, and Johnny watched the incident from the front desk.

"I told you, and told you, and told you time and again over the last few days that my father was killed in a car accident last week," Fin said loudly to Bummer, "and all I wanted was a few days off so I could go home for his funeral! But _nooooo_, you didn't want to believe me and give me that time off, even after I showed you proof that he was dead with his obituary - which was far more proof than you deserved to get!"

"Fin, take it easy, you're causing a scene here..." a visibly embarrassed Bummer tried to interrupt.

"SHUT UP! I'm not finished!" Fin screamed, feeling her eyes begin to water as she pointed her index finger at Bummer. "Denying me my right to go back home and grieve for my dead father is just the tip of the iceberg with you! Since early this summer, you've been nothing but a pain-in-the-ass tyrant to the staff! You stick us in a roach-infested rathole for a place to stay! You give us crappy food to eat most of the time! You work us like slaves seven days a week and never give us time off! You let bratty kids run wild in the hotel and do what they like to us! You threaten to fire us for inexcusable reasons! You try to deny us our right to surf and enjoy what little time off we do get! You try to cheat us on our pay! And worst of all, you have no regard for our safety or our well-being!"

Lo and Emma continued to watch from a distance as they heard Fin keep verbally roasting Bummer over the coals while the manager, who could feel all eyes in the lobby on him, stammered as he tried to explain himself.

"Don't, okay? Just DON'T!" Fin yelled at Bummer again. "Don't even TRY to excuse what you've done to me and my friends! You're damn lucky I'm restraining myself with you, and that's more than you bloody well deserve!" Fin then began furiously untying her apron. "I've had it with the staff house, I've had it with this job, and I've had it with YOU, you cheap bastard!" she screamed again, throwing her apron into Bummer's face for punctuation. With that, Fin then ran out of the lobby toward the staff house, crying bitterly the whole way there.

Out of concern for Fin, Lo and Emma then started sprinting toward the door leading out to the hotel pool area which Fin had gone through, stopping only long enough to give Bummer dirty looks before they went on their way. "Hey, where do you two think you're going?" Bummer called after the girls. "You're not off-duty yet! Turn around and get back..."

"Uh...no, okay boss?" Johnny interrupted with a shake of his head, now stepping in to settle things down himself. "Just...no. She's been through too much as it is."

Bummer then looked around and saw hotel guests in the lobby still staring at him following Fin's tirade. "Well, what're you all looking at?" he said to them in exasperation. "The show's over, now go about what you were doing!" After a brief pause, he then started toward the hotel pool entrance.

"Wait, where are you going?" Johnny asked, wondering what Bummer had in mind.

"If Fin McCloud thinks that little temper tantrum of hers will give her what she wants," Bummer stated, "she's got another thing coming!" As he watched his boss walk through the door, Johnny, who figured Bummer still thought Fin was only making up her father's death as an excuse to cut work and go surfing, feared that what the manager had in mind next would only make things worse. Realizing he had to act fast for Fin's sake, Johnny then ran through the hotel pool entrance himself and out to the staff house.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Ooohh<em>, this may well be Bummer's lowest point yet while dealing with the groms, particularly Fin. Kicking a girl while she's already down? Not cool, Bummer. Watch what happens next when he pushes his luck one step too far in the eyes of Lo and her friends.**


	8. Mutiny at Surfer's Paradise

**CHAPTER 8 - MUTINY AT SURFER'S PARADISE  
><strong>

From the moment she ran out the lobby door and through the hotel pool area, an angry and distraught Fin continued crying as she ran all the way to the staff house, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. She was enraged at Bummer for his heartless attitude toward her personal tragedy, made worse thanks to him believing that she only made up her father's death so she could skip out on work. As soon as she reached the front porch, she dropped onto the couch closest to the front door, buried her face in her hands and cried in anger and sadness.

When she heard Fin sobbing outside, Kelly, who was in the living room during a break from duty, went out to the front porch to investigate. "Oh no, Fin," she said with a gasp when she saw her friend crying on the couch. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Bummer happened," Fin said between sobs, then she went into detail about the incident in the lobby.

Kelly, who sat down on the couch with Fin to hear her story, was still listening to Fin when she saw Lo and Emma running toward the staff house. "Emma, Lo, guess what Bummer tried to do to Fin!" Kelly said as she stood up and ran to the front porch rail.

"We know, we were there," Emma said. "We heard everything from the moment Fin started yelling at Bummer." She and Lo then went to sit with Fin on the couch. "Fin, it's okay, sweetie," Emma said as she and Lo each began rubbing Fin's back to comfort her. "What did Bummer do to get you so upset?"

While Fin explained what happened in the lobby to Lo and Emma, Kelly, who had been horrified and angered by Bummer's callous, uncaring attitude toward Fin's plight, turned her head and glared at the hotel, where she knew Bummer still was, while scowling and clenching her fists.

Moments later, Reef, Broseph, Ripper and Lance were coming from a surf session at the Office when they saw Fin on the porch with Lo, Emma and Kelly. "Hey, what's going on?" Reef asked when he heard how upset Fin was sounding as she talked with Lo and Emma.

"Fin told Bummer about her dad and asked for time off so she could go home for his funeral tomorrow," Kelly explained. "But Bummer thought Fin was making it up and not only did he crumple up her dad's obituary when she showed it to him, he threatened to fire her if she didn't get back to work."

"What?" a shocked Reef said right before he and the other guys ran up to the porch to check on Fin. "What's Bummer thinking? He can't fire Fin for wanting time off to go back home for her dad's funeral. That's just asking for trouble!"

"You're telling me," Lo remarked. "It's bad enough when he treats us poorly while playing 'yes-man' to Daddy and the hotel guests, but when he threatens to fire Fin after all she's been through? This time, Bummer's finally gone too far!"

"Oh, I'm only getting started, missy!" a voice said out of nowhere, causing everyone on the porch to turn their heads to see who spoke up. It was Bummer, standing there with his arms crossed while Johnny, who had tried in vain to convince him not to go to the staff house to confront Fin again, walked past him to join the gang on the front porch.

When she saw Bummer standing there near the porch steps, Kelly walked over to the top of the steps. "You've got some nerve showing your face here after what you did to Fin, Bummer!" she said angrily as she glared at Bummer, who had now become public enemy number one to the summer staff because of his recent actions.

"Yeah, what's the matter with you, anyway?" Lo joined in when she marched to the porch railing. "How can you be so cruel to someone who just lost her dad? Me and Emma were there when Fin got that obituary from her grandma in the mail, and you go and treat it as a joke and crumple it up like it was garbage? That's just ghoulish, even for you!"

"Oh-ho-ho, is _that_ what she wants you to think?" said an incredulous Bummer. "Did you all suffer memory loss and forget that she pulled the exact same trick last month to try to skip work and surf? Or maybe - just maybe - you're all in on it with her!"

"Look, mate," Ripper then said as he stepped up. "Usually I got your back, but not this time, not when it comes to Fin. You just crossed a line that no one should be crossing."

"Believe it, dude," Reef said next. "Do you even know about the concept of...uhh...hey, what do you call that thing where anything bad someone does comes back to bite 'em in the butt?"

"Enough already!" Bummer snapped at the gang. "Alright, here's how it's going to be from here on out! Effective immediately, all of you here are banned from surfing for the rest of the summer!"

"What?" Emma said when she heard Bummer's edict.

"That's bogus, dude!" Broseph joined in.

"You can't do that!" Fin, the centre of the whole issue, then spoke up angrily as she stood up from the couch. "We have a right to surf here!"

"I can do it and I have," Bummer declared. "Now here's what's going to happen if all of you don't get back to work right now. Lo, I'm going to call your father and see to it that he removes you from that Christmas trip to Florida he has planned. And for the rest of you, you can start searching the want ads in the paper because you'll be canned! Pink-slipped! Terminated! In other words, the rest of you WILL BE FIRED!" Bummer then turned around and marched back toward the hotel, with nearly everyone else looking toward him and shaking their heads in disgust, while Fin sat back on the couch and resumed sobbing softly while Emma consoled her.

Outside of Fin, no one in the gang was more infuriated than Lo, who stared daggers at Bummer with an angry scowl as she watched him walk away. The hotel heiress was less-than-pleased about the ego-driven power trip Bummer had been on in recent weeks, but after witnessing his disrespectful behavior toward Fin (including his continued refusal to believe her and his threat to fire her even after she tore into him for demeaning her situation), followed by his ban on surfing against the gang and his threat to fire them (and to get Lo's Christmas vacation in Florida taken away) for supporting Fin, she came to realize that Bummer had indeed gone too far where her friend was concerned.

Once Bummer was far enough away that she was convinced he was safely out of earshot, Lo then glanced toward Johnny. "Johnny, I'm going to need your help," she said to the front desk concierge. "What does Bummer have planned for his agenda tomorrow?"

"I think he's going out to the fish plant over in Campbell River to pick up an order of fish slurry," Johnny said. "I found out a while ago that's one of the ingredients he uses for that gruel he's been giving to the summer staff for meals."

"So he's going out of town for the day? Good," Lo said in response, "'cause I have an idea to help Fin and teach Bummer a lesson at the same time." She then turned back to glare in the direction of the hotel again. "You wanted trouble, Bummer, now you're going to get it," she said with resolution.

* * *

><p>The next day after Bummer headed to Campbell River, Lo put her plan, which she had discussed with the gang the previous night, into action. While Broseph, Ripper and Lance all volunteered to keep watch for Bummer's return, Johnny remotely deactivated the security system that guarded the day manager's office.<p>

To avoid Fin risking her neck with the rest of the gang, Lo convinced her friend to clock in for work in Housekeeping as usual while she, Emma, Kelly, Reef and David went into the office. David, who Kelly convinced to join the mission because of his knowledge of computers, was working to hack the password to Bummer's computer files by using his laptop (which he had connected to Bummer's computer), while the others searched through the file cabinets nearby, all with the intent of digging up any dirt on Bummer that Lo could use against him with her father on Fin's behalf.

"Man, searching through all these files sucks," Reef complained while thumbing through a folder from one of the file cabinets. "Besides the time it's taking, how're we supposed to know what to look for?"

"We have to find whatever we can get that'll be useful to us to bust Bummer - receipts, bank statements, forms, anything incriminating against him that'll come in handy," Lo pointed out. "And remember, we're doing this for Fin. No one disrespects my friend by dishonoring her dad's memory and gets away with it, not even Bummer." Turning to David, she then asked, "How're you doing with the computer, David?"

"Still haven't cracked the password yet, but I'm working at it," David said as he tapped away at his laptop keyboard. "Anyway, now I know I've entered the world of business - this is the first case of corporate espionage I've ever engaged in."

"That's true," Lo replied after a small giggle, "but it's for a good cause. Kelly, any luck with your drawer yet?" she asked the Pirate Ship manager.

"Nothing so far," Kelly said while checking through file folders in the cabinet drawer she was assigned. "Everything I've checked in here up to now looks legit."

"Hey Lo, how's this look?" Reef asked, handing Lo a receipt. "Incriminating enough for you?"

Lo examined the receipt. "For tooth whitening strips from a drugstore?" she said. "I don't think so, Reef."

"Can't hurt to ask," Reef said with a shrug. "Hey, it looks like he uses the same kind of whitening strips for his teeth that I do," he added with a grin as he checked the receipt again. "Nice choice, Bummer."

"Reef, forget about the tooth whitening strips and focus," Kelly chided the cocky surfer.

David was still trying to crack the password to Bummer's computer files when he scored a breakthrough. "Ah-ha, jackpot!" he declared, getting the others' attention. "I finally got Bummer's password!"

"Sweet!" Lo said when she and the gang went over to look. "Awesome work, David! Now see what you can find in those files. If there's any evidence of wrongdoing by Bummer regarding hotel business, it has to be in there."

"It'll take a bit of looking, but I'm game," David said. "There's bound to be stuff in here or in the file cabinets that Bummer doesn't want Mr. Ridgemount to know about, so he'll have done all he can to cover those tracks."

"Well, we can't give up now," Emma said as she returned to her assigned cabinet drawer. "Not when we're getting closer to finding what we need."

Reef was digging through another file folder when he found some more receipts. "How about these, Lo?" he said, handing them over to her.

Lo looked the receipts over. "These are no good either," she said. "They're just receipts for pizza and Chinese takeout deliveries charged to the hotel."

"Man, all that talk about food's makin' me hungry now," Reef commented. "If I had the cheddar to spend, I could go out for Beaver Tails in town when we're off-duty."

"So why don't you?" Emma asked.

"Have you seen our paychecks lately?" Reef said. "Bummer's been payin' us in peanuts - literally."

"Johnny told me about that a while ago," Lo then told Emma. "Bummer also paid me and Fin in hot dog coupons that were only good for certain times that were, like, totally inconvenient to us. Why would he do that to us when the hotel's been making a fortune?"

"If Bummer's been ripping you off on your paychecks, that alone would be grounds for him to be in deep trouble with Mr. Ridgemount, especially since he knows his boss's daughter is on summer staff," David pointed out. "The only likely reason Bummer hasn't been fired or otherwise disciplined is because Mr. Ridgemount doesn't know what's really going on in his own hotel, because Bummer's been actively keeping him in the dark about the conditions the staff is working under."

"That's what I thought," Lo said. "Bummer's been acting as a buffer between Daddy and the staff since he became manager here."

"And he knows if Mr. Ridgemount found out what you were being subjected to while on the summer staff," David said to Lo about Bummer, "he'd be done like dinner here."

"Exactly," Lo said. "That's why we have to expose Bummer to Daddy. Not just for ourselves, but also on principle because of what he did to Fin."

Meanwhile, Reef was searching through a folder he found in the back of a bottom file drawer when he uncovered another sales receipt. "Hey Lo, how about this?" he said as he handed her the paper.

"I hope it's not for another trivial item, Reef," Lo said. "You've already handed me several of..." She then stopped in mid-sentence and gasped when she saw what the receipt was for. "Reef, do you know what you just gave me?" a surprised Lo said, which also got Emma, Kelly and David's attention.

"No, what?" a puzzled Reef asked.

"It's a sales receipt for a golf cart made out to the hotel in Bummer's name," Lo said. "Where'd you get the receipt from?"

"It was in this folder here," Reef said, holding up the folder.

"Hey, isn't that the same cart me, Reef and Broseph took into town for a Beaver Tail run a few weeks ago?" Emma said.

"If it's the same one with the personalized licence plate that read 'BAUMER1', then it must be," Reef replied.

"That's it!" Lo said, sounding hopeful. "This may be the key to what we need to take Bummer down! All we need now is to find a bank statement from the same time frame and we're good to go."

"Wait, you mean one of these?" Reef said, picking up an envelope next to him from the floor. "I wasn't sure if it was important then, so I put it aside."

Lo took the envelope, which was from the bank the hotel had its account with, and took out the four-page statement inside. Near the end of the second page, she discovered a payment withdrawal to the golf cart dealership for the same amount as shown on the sales receipt Reef had found. "Yes, that's it!" she declared happily. "This bank statement and the sales receipt are exactly what we need!"

Emma took a look at the vital pieces of paper. "That's great, but what's the monthly budget for the staff's meals?" she asked out of curiosity.

"Less than what Bummer paid for his golf cart," said Lo, who had some knowledge of the hotel's financial workings. "It sure explains why he's been cheaping out on staff food ever since he bought that cart." Turning to Reef, she then said, "Reef, you're a hero! When we take these papers to show Daddy, he's gonna thank you and Fin's gonna love you for busting Bummer!"

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Reef declared. "Let's go execute part two of 'Operation Bummer Roast'!"

After Lo, Reef, Emma, Kelly and David put back all the files in their cabinets and logged off on the computer, the gang left Bummer's office to head for the staff house for the second part of Lo's plan. After contacting Johnny to tell him of the success of obtaining the forms she needed, Lo called Fin next. "Hey Fin, ask Rosie for a break and come meet us at the staff house," she said to her friend. "I'll explain everything over there. You'll want to be there anyway because I've got good news!"

When she finished talking to Fin, Lo called her father next. "Hi Daddy, it's Lo," she greeted Mr. Ridgemount. "If you're not busy now, I need you to meet me at the staff house right away. It's urgent. Bring along Monday's copy of the Halifax newspaper if you still have it."

"Wait a minute, why meet your dad at the staff house?" Reef wondered after Lo hung up her iPhone. "And why bring a paper from Halifax along?"

"Because Daddy hasn't been over there since Bummer became the day manager a few years ago," Lo said, "and what I've got to show him there is only the beginning. Daddy also subscribes to some of the major newspapers from around the country and the obituary for Fin's dad is in this Monday's Halifax paper." As the gang cut through the lobby on their way to the staff house, Lo stated firmly, "Bummer, you're going down."

* * *

><p><strong>Coming up, what happens when Mr. Ridgemount learns about what Bummer's been up to lately (and when the Marvin family gets roped into the fallout)?<strong>


	9. Mess with One, Mess with All

**CHAPTER 9 - MESS WITH ONE, MESS WITH ALL**

**Here's the long-awaited ninth installment, covering the moment when the groms' stand against Bummer after Lo declares "Enough is enough!" over his shabby treatment of Fin produces results, and when everyone, staff and guests alike, speak out against the much-despised Marvin family over their kids' behavior at the hotel. This chapter contains some suggestions made by Emperor of the Animal Kingdom, with a couple of modifications (see further down).**

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, Mr. Ridgemount arrived at the staff house at Lo's request, to discover the state of the building upon his arrival. "What in the world...?" he exclaimed when he checked out the staff residence's decrepit outer appearance. To his shock, the Ridgemount patriarch noticed decaying railings along the front porch, the second-floor walkway and the outside stairway connecting the two floors, a missing stairrail going up the front porch steps, peeling paint all over the outside of the house, rotting roof boards over the walkway, some boards missing from the house siding, two pieces of plywood covering a big hole in the roof at one end and another smaller hole in the roof noticeable at the other end.<p>

"Hi, Daddy," Lo greeted her father from the top of the porch steps. "I'm glad you made it."

"Lauren, what's up with the outside of the..." Mr. Ridgemount began to speak as he started up the porch steps, but as he hit the second step, his right foot went right through a rotten part of the step, causing the hotel owner to curse.

Lo gasped when she saw what happened. "Daddy, are you okay?" she said with concern.

"I'm fine, Princess," Mr. Ridgemount replied as he pulled his foot out of the now-broken step. "No real damage except to this step." He continued surveying the front porch as he went to meet Lo there. "Good grief, what's the matter with the staff house? It looks like a run-down shack!" he then said.

"Wait'll you see what's inside," Lo said, just as Mr. Ridgemount heard a noise coming from above his head.

"Lauren, look out!" Mr. Ridgemount said abruptly as he pulled Lo out of the way, just before several ceiling boards came crashing down on the spot where Lo had been standing mere moments ago.

"Ohmigosh, Daddy, that was close!" Lo said, hugging her father with relief after seeing the boards where she had just been. "C'mon, let's go inside," she said while leading Mr. Ridgemount into the staff house living room. "There's some stuff I need to talk to you about."

"I know you said it was urgent," Mr. Ridgemount said, "but why not talk about it over at the dining lounge instead?"

"Because the condition of the staff house was one of those things," Lo said. "How long's it been since you were here last?"

"The last time I was here was some time before I promoted Andrew to day manager...which was over six years ago," Mr. Ridgemount realized. "He's been telling me everything with this place was fine the whole time and I took his word for it, sight unseen."

"Is that the Monday paper from Halifax you have there, Daddy?" Lo asked, noticing the newspaper her father had in his hand.

"It is, Pumpkin," Mr. Ridgemount said. "Why do you need it, though?"

"You know my friend Fin McCloud, the one from Housekeeping?" Lo said.

"Sure, she's one of my best employees," Mr. Ridgemount remembered.

"Her father was killed in a car accident last week," Lo explained. "His obituary appeared in the Monday Halifax paper and Fin got a clipping of the obituary by express mail from her grandma yesterday. She needed it to show to Andrew because she wanted to take time off to go back home for her dad's funeral and Andrew wouldn't let her because he thought she was faking it to get out of work and go surfing." As Mr. Ridgemount read the obituary in question, Lo continued, "But when Fin showed it to Andrew, he crumpled it up and threw it on the floor, then he threatened to fire her if she didn't get back to work. Fin got so angry because of it, she screamed at Andrew before she ran off crying."

"That's terrible!" Mr. Ridgemount said in response. "Why wouldn't he give Fin leave on compassionate grounds to let her go home for the funeral?"

"I found out the hard way over the summer that Andrew doesn't have any compassion when it comes to his staff," Lo said. "That reminds me, take a look at these," she added, handing her father the forms she and her friends retrieved from Bummer's office.

"Where did you get these?" Mr. Ridgemount asked as he checked out the hotel bank statement and the golf cart sales receipt.

"That's not important right now, but you told me once about seeing Andrew with a fancy new golf cart outside the hotel a few weeks ago, right?" Lo said.

"I did," Mr. Ridgemount admitted. "He was fawning over that thing like he'd just won the lottery."

"He might as well have," Lo then said, showing her father a picture of Bummer's golf cart on her iPhone. "Check this out," she continued, switching to another photo of the cart that showed a close-up of the BAUMER1 licence plate on the front.

"What?" Mr. Ridgemount said, surprised at the photo. "Where would Andrew get the money to buy his own golf cart?"

"That's what I brought you the sales receipt and the bank statement for," Lo said. "He bought that cart for himself using the hotel's money. He depleted most of the summer staff's food budget for the next month and a half to pay for that cart, so he cheaped out on staff meals to stay within budget by giving us nothing but barely-edible slop. Johnny told me Andrew had that sludge made with slurry he got from the fish plant in Campbell River."

Mr. Ridgemount was beginning to see red by that point. "What else has he done that you know about?" he asked.

"Andrew's also been ripping most of the staff off on our paychecks over the last month," Lo reported. "I don't know what's he's been doing with the money we were supposed to get, but most of us have only been paid in stuff like bar peanuts and hot dog coupons." She then produced the unused coupons in question, which were still in her most recent pay envelope, from her purse. "And I don't know about the others, but the only time I've actually been getting any real money of late was through babysitting, and that's only because my clients pay me directly."

Mr. Ridgemount was now fuming, but keeping his temper in check. "Anything else?" he said.

Lo then ran off a list of Bummer's other transgressions against the staff, including threatening to fire some of them for ridiculous reasons, allowing the Marvin boys to run wild in the hotel and terrorize staff and guests alike, and working her and her friends seven days a week without breaks. "But worst of all, when we went to support Fin after what he did to her, Andrew banned the staff from surfing when we're off-duty and threatened to fire everyone else and to get my Christmas vacay in Florida taken away - all because we supported Fin when she really needed us," she said. "He only did it to try and save face after Fin ripped him a few new ones for disrespecting her dad's memory."

"Well, I'm about to rip Bummer a few new ones myself after everything you just told me," Mr. Ridgemount said, steaming at how someone he had considered his right-hand man at the hotel, someone he had trusted to keep things running smoothly there, could cause such problems for him, his daughter, his staff, his guests and the hotel in general. When he looked back at Lo though, he noticed something that caught his attention. "Lauren, your right leg!" he said to his daughter, pointing in that direction.

Lo took a look and noticed two cockroaches crawling on her lower right leg. Creeped out and spooked by the appearance of the bugs, Lo screamed and shook her leg to get rid of the roaches, which Mr. Ridgemount then stepped on and squashed when they hit the floor. "Daddy, that was _sooo_ gross!" a disgusted Lo said with a shiver. "I _hate_ cockroaches!"

"All right, that _tears it!_" an irate Mr. Ridgemount then snapped after what happened to Lo. "I'm not letting my daughter stay in this roach-infested fire hazard waiting to happen one moment longer!" He then grabbed his cell phone from his coat pocket and speed-dialed Bummer's number. "Andrew, it's Mr. Ridgemount," he said as soon as Bummer answered. "As soon as you get back to the hotel, meet me at the staff house immediately!"

"Of course, Mr. Ridgemount, not a prob...wait a sec," Bummer said at the other end when he realized what he heard his boss say. "Did you just say the staff house?"

"Yes, the staff house!" Mr. Ridgemount said sternly. "I want to see you there the moment you set foot on the hotel grounds. Is that clear?"

"Y-y-y-y-yes, sir," Bummer said, his voice sounding as though he realized he was on his way to meet his fate.

When Mr. Ridgemount hung up, Lo looked at her father admiringly and smiled. "Thanks, Daddy," she said. "You just did me a huge favor, and Fin a ginormous one."

"It's not over yet, Princess," Mr. Ridgemount then said. "Just wait 'til Bummer gets here. When I heard him on the phone after I told him to meet me here, I think he knows what's coming for him."

* * *

><p>Upstairs on the staff house's second floor, Fin, Lo, Broseph, Emma, Johnny, Kelly, David, Ripper and Lance were in the hallway near the top of the stairway, staying just out of sight from the main floor while listening to yelling coming from there, when Reef came along after using the bathroom. "Hey guys, what's going..." Reef began.<p>

"_Shhh_," Lo said, silencing Reef as she put her index finger to her lips. "Daddy's downstairs reading the riot act to Bummer," she said quietly.

"Ahh, now _this_ I gotta hear," Reef said as he joined the rest of the gang to listen to the show going on downstairs.

Down in the living room, Bummer was attempting to defend his decision to not tell Mr. Ridgemount about the state of the staff house. "B-b-b-but sir, it was _your_ decision to send Lo to the staff house in the first place..." he said, trying to deflect some of the blame.

"Which I never would've done if I'd known about the condition of this place!" Mr. Ridgemount fired back. "What were you thinking, letting Lauren continue to stay in a death trap that should have been condemned five years ago? This dump isn't fit for cockroaches to live in, let alone for my little girl!" The hotel owner then produced the forms he had received from Lo and showed them to Bummer. "And what's this about you spending hotel money without authorization to buy yourself a golf cart for your own personal use?" he demanded to know.

Bummer's eyes went wide when he recognized the sales receipt and the hotel bank statement that contained the record of the sale. "Sir, where did you even get..." he said.

"Save it, Andrew! It's not important where I got it," Mr. Ridgemount continued. "To make matters worse, you had to dip into the summer staff's meal budget in order to pay for that cart, and you spent the next few weeks afterward feeding pig swill to the staff - especially to Lauren!"

Bummer was now visibly sweating as Mr. Ridgemount continued to chastize him for his mismanagement of Surfer's Paradise. "I've also gotten complaints that you've been paying most of the staff in bar peanuts and food coupons that they couldn't even use because of restrictions on them! I want to know, Andrew - what have you been doing with the money the staff was supposed to be getting paid with?" Mr. Ridgemount said angrily.

"Sir, I-I-I-I-I-I-I..." Bummer stammered nervously.

"And here's something that really sticks in my craw," Mr. Ridgemount went on. "Fin McCloud, one of my best workers on staff here, loses her father in a car accident last week, and not only do you deny her leave to go home for her father's funeral, you treat her grief over the loss as a joke and threaten to fire her for requesting that time off!"

"Sir, Fin made all of that up!" Bummer insisted, sticking to his belief based on his past dealings with the groms. "She only wanted that time off so she could get in extra surfing on company time!"

"Is that so?" Mr. Ridgemount countered. "Then how do you explain THIS?" He then showed Bummer the classified pages from the Halifax newspaper, opened to the obituary section, and pointed to the obituary of Fin's father, circled with red marker - the same obituary Bummer had crumpled up like trash after Fin showed it to him.

The moment he saw the obituary, Bummer slumped his shoulders, realizing he was sunk. _Oh crap, McCloud was telling the truth after all_, he thought to himself. _I am __**so**__ screwed_.

"And how can you threaten to fire my entire summer staff simply for giving Fin the emotional support she needed?" Mr Ridgemount said next. "Are you _trying_ to make an example of her just to show you can do whatever you think you please with my employees? That is just plain disgraceful, Andrew!"

"And how about you banning them from surfing when they're not on duty?" the Ridgemount patriarch then told Bummer. "Don't you even realize by eliminating their recreational opportunities and working them every day of the week without breaks, you're only creating unhappy staff? Unhappy staff means unhappy customers, which means lost customers, which means lost revenue for the hotel - and that means the unemployment office for you! Not to mention that creating unhappy staff only creates an opportunity for rebellious staff!" Bummer, realizing that Mr. Ridgemount was right, said nothing.

"Speaking of unhappy customers," Mr. Ridgemount continued, "I've also heard of customers complaining about certain guests' unruly children running around my hotel misbehaving in destructive fashion while their parents do nothing to stop them, and neither do you! What do you have to say about _that?_"

"If I do so, the parents threaten to leave the hotel," Bummer said in his defence. "And _that_ means lost revenue for the hotel..."

"Not as much as what we've _been_ losing thanks to angry guests checking out early BECAUSE of those kids!" Mr. Ridgemount said. "Not to mention..." Before he could finish, Mr. Ridgemount heard his cell phone ring in his coat pocket and took it out to answer. Recognizing the number for the Pirate Ship, he answered it right away. "Hello?"

"Monsieur Reedgemount, I need you at ze restaurant queeckly," a French-accented voice replied in a panic, which Mr. Ridgemount immediately recognized as the hotel chef. "Eet's an emairegency! Ze keetchen has exploded!"

"WHAT?" Mr. Ridgemount barked when he heard the news. "I'll be there right away! Andrew, you're coming with me," he said to Bummer when he hung up his phone. "It's high time _someone_ cleaned up the mess you created!" Mr. Ridgemount and Bummer then left the staff house for the hotel, with Fin, Lo, Reef and the rest of the gang following soon after.

* * *

><p>The moment Mr. Ridgemount and everyone else from the staff house arrived in the hotel lobby, they were greeted by the sight of smoke pouring from the Pirate Ship, along with several of the on-duty wait staff emerging from the restaurant carrying fire extinguishers. "WHAT IS GOING ON IN MY HOTEL?" Mr. Ridgemount boomed when he saw the commotion.<p>

"Ask these two little dudes," Zack, one of the Pirate Ship wait staff, said as he had a squirming Todd and Mark Marvin by the backs of their shirts. "Caught 'em coming running from the kitchen, laughing 'bout what they did. Chef told me he caught 'em setting off cherry bombs in the ovens and on the gas stoves."

"Let go of us, dork!" Todd protested. "You hurt us and we'll sue!"

"You're in no position to be suing _anyone_, junior! You're too young to do so anyway and you've been watching too many TV cop shows," Mr. Ridgemount stated plainly to Todd.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Mr. Marvin said as he arrived in the lobby with Mrs. Marvin, having been paged by the front desk moments earlier.

"Your two rugrats were caught damaging hotel property and harassing my staff yet again," Mr. Ridgemount said. "Which wouldn't happen if you and your wife would keep better control over them!"

"Hey, they're just being boys letting off a little steam," Mr. Marvin said dismissively, disregarding Mr. Ridgemount's concerns. "What boys don't get a little high-spirited once in a while?"

"Your boys 'letting off a little steam' has caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to this hotel, caused several irate guests to check out early and caused at least one of the hotel child sitters to quit out of frustration," Mr. Ridgemount countered, "not to mention frequent complaints from my staff about your kids - all of which went unheeded by our day manager for the sake of keeping you spending money here." Bummer gulped and adjusted the collar of his uniform golf shirt as Mr. Ridgemount glared at him while speaking.

"So let me make it short and sweet for you," Mr. Ridgemount continued as he turned back to Mr. and Mrs. Marvin. "Your parenting skills STINK! Your boys have been running wild, terrorizing my staff and bothering our customers for two _months_ now, and you've done absolutely NOTHING to stop their misbehavior! Someone has to say it - your kids are rotten little monsters and YOU NEED TO BE BETTER PARENTS! If not, the only future they can look forward to is having their mugshots on wanted posters and watching the outside world from an eight-by-ten prison cell!"

"Well, I nevah!" an indignant Mrs. Marvin snapped in her distinctive New Jersey accent, offended at having her parenting skills (or lack thereof) questioned. "What makes you think you can question our fitness to parent? You can't even prove that our boys did anything wrong!"

"That's where I beg to differ," Johnny then jumped in. "We have hours of security footage showing your boys getting into all kinds of trouble around the hotel _and_ we have it archived for record-keeping purposes."

Soon, other hotel guests and staff joined the fray, voicing their complaints about the Marvin boys. "Those young whippersnappers fired me out of a cannon at your restaurant!" Chester Grizzle griped.

"Those brats pulled down our change tent while we were changing and they ruined our beach photo shoot!" one of the Tropic Tan models complained.

"Stone Seabreeze filed a complaint that his room was broken into while he was here and some of his stuff was damaged, including his guitar," Johnny added. "Care to guess who?" he said while glaring at Todd and Mark.

"Hey Dad," Ty said as he walked up to Mr. Ridgemount, followed by George, who was hopping around with his arms and ankles tied up while gagged. "I found George like this a moment ago in the broom closet near the public washrooms after I heard banging coming from there and I went to check it out."

"They stuffed salt and pepper packets into the kitchen microwave and set it on high," Emma said. "They also fired live crabs out of the cannons several times onto staff and customers, and they made me trip and spill several customer orders!"

"They tied my ankles and dragged me around the lobby with a golf cart and made me smack into the Lobbyquarium!" Wipeout Whale, the costumed hotel mascot, spoke up.

"My girlfriend got a goose egg on her head when those little punks knocked over some surfboards onto her!" one muscle-bound guest said.

"When I babysat them once, they took off on me while we were in town without telling me where they were going!" Lo piped up. "I spent nearly an hour looking for them afterward before I found out they took the bus back to the hotel! They also buried me in the sand and refused to dig me back out!"

"I'm not usually one to complain myself, bossman," the Kahuna joined in, "but they lured my pet skunk into the Whalebus one time, dumped water on him and made him spray the bus. Took three days to air the bus out afterward." Several guests also complained about being splashed with water at the hotel pool when the Marvin boys cannonballed into the pool and engaged in other horseplay there on several occasions.

"They bothered numerous customers in the DR by running around unsupervised between tables and playing tag!" Kelly complained.

"Thought you might like to check this out, Mr. Ridgemount," David said as he showed him footage filmed on his iPhone of the Marvin brothers wreaking havoc in the Pirate Ship during the times he ate there, giving more weight to the staff and guests' grievances against the bratty boys. "I spoke to the manager about it after I gathered enough evidence to show him," he added while looking Bummer's way, "and he said he'd look into it, but he left it at that and did nothing."

"Okay, I've heard enough," Mr. Ridgemount called to everyone in the lobby. He then turned back to the Marvin family and said, "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Marvin, you and your boys just made history here. Thanks to the trouble your kids have caused here since you checked in at the start of the tourist season, the four of you are the first people to make it onto a new creation of mine - the Ridgemount Resorts blacklist."

"And what do you mean by that?" a perplexed Mr. Marvin said.

"It means you, your wife and your two kids are now banned from returning to this hotel and to any other Ridgemount Resorts property _for life_," Mr. Ridgemount told Mr. Marvin, stressing the "for life" part. "In other words, you and your family are never to set foot in any of our hotels ever again. Now, you have twenty minutes to pack your things and get out of my hotel. And," he added, "to make sure your boys don't get any ideas and do any more damage on your way out, hotel security will accompany you and keep a sharp eye on them."

As three security guards accompanied a chagrined and resentful Marvin family to their room to pack their bags, the gathered crowd of guests and staff began cheering and applauding, celebrating the eviction of the most notorious guests in Surfer's Paradise history. Mr. Ridgemount was not finished, however, as he turned his attention back to Bummer. "Well, Andrew, this is the limit!" he said to the now-disgraced day manager. "Everything else you did to my staff was bad enough, but allowing those bratty kids to do as they please in my hotel is the icing on the cake! And subjecting my daughter to your deliberate mismanagement and incompetence just makes things worse!"

Mr. Ridgemount paused a moment before he continued chastizing Bummer. "By all rights, Andrew, I should fire you from the hotel for what you've done and what you've allowed to happen here, and I should also press charges of embezzlement against you for taking hotel funds for personal use by buying yourself that golf cart with the staff meal budget." Bummer, meanwhile, continued to sweat as he faced the proverbial hangman's noose. "Yes, I should do these things - but I'm not going to," he continued.

Bummer was caught by surprise by Mr. Ridgemount's statement. "You're...you're not?" he said, sounding astonished.

"No, I'm not, but I do have something else in mind for you," Mr. Ridgemount then said. "I made a mistake by making you the day manager at Surfer's Paradise six years ago because you've allowed that power to go to your head and influence the way you treat the staff working under you, but now I'm about to fix that mistake. For starters, you will no longer be the day manager here because I'm demoting you down to concierge."

"C-c-concierge?" a stunned Bummer said.

"That's right, concierge," Mr. Ridgemount said. "You'll be assisting Johnny at the front desk from now on. Second, you're going to repay every penny of the money you took from the staff food budget, so twenty percent of your paycheck will be deducted each payday until you've fully repaid the full amount you paid for that golf cart you bought - which, by the way, is now no longer your property, but the hotel's."

"What? That's not fair!" Bummer protested.

"You're in no position to be talking about fairness when you treated my staff unfairly for who knows how long, and especially Lauren for the past two months!" Mr. Ridgemount said. "On that account, I'm going to let the staff deal with you as they see fit within reason."

Bummer then felt a tap on his shoulder from behind and he turned around to see Lo. "And by the way - _Bummer_," Lo said, "as your boss's daughter, let me tell you that Fin McCloud is my friend, and as such, she's under _my_ protection. Cause any trouble for her ever again, and you're going to answer to me. Got that?"

After facing Lo, Bummer turned around...only to face Fin, Reef, Broseph, Emma, Johnny, the Kahuna, Kelly, David, Ripper and Lance, all of whom were staring down the now-ex-manager with angry glares as they walked slowly toward him with a purpose. "Wait a sec now, guys, let's be reasonable about this," Bummer said while backing away.

David removed his sunglasses from the pocket of his polo shirt and put them on. "You want reasonable, this is as good as you're getting with us," he said. "Your time's come today, Bummer."

"Come on now, don't do anything hasty..." Bummer, becoming more worried, said to the mob he was facing.

"You tell _me_ to be reasonable?" Fin then said. "By making me miss my dad's funeral, you cost me something I can never get back! You got payback coming for all the trouble you caused us since mid-June!"

"Guys, PLEASE! I'm begging you, show some mercy!" a desperate Bummer then pleaded.

"Like you showed us mercy when you started working us like dogs seven days a week six weeks ago?" Broseph spoke up. "You know what I say to that, bra - you live by the strike, now you wipe out by the strike!"

Bummer soon realized that the angry gang was not going to back down from him anymore. "I'm screwed," he said resignedly while rolling his eyes upward.

"LET'S GET HIM!" Kelly then yelled, causing Bummer to scream and run off frantically as the gang began chasing him around the lobby, out to the pool area and around the hotel.

* * *

><p>"Okay guys, a joke is a joke, but SERIOUSLY?" Bummer said as he struggled with the ropes he had been tied to the lobby's Wipeout statue with. "C'mon, untie me already!" Of course, Bummer's pleas to be released from the ropes did not come out sounding that way, but as muffled sounds, thanks to being gagged with duct tape as well as bound to the statue on top of the lobby fountain.<p>

When Fin, Reef and the rest of the gang finally caught up to Bummer when he slipped and fell into the pool during the chase around the hotel, Reef, Broseph, Ripper and David carried him back into the lobby and tied him onto the Wipeout statue, then gagged him. As a bit of added revenge for herself, Fin taped a paper sign that read "I'm a selfish dork" onto Bummer with duct tape, visible for all to see as they passed by in the lobby.

Two of those passers-by, Fin and Emma, were just coming into the lobby from the pool area after a night surfing session at the Office when they saw Bummer, who had just spent his eighth hour tied to the statue. While the ex-manager continued struggling with the ropes and letting out muffled screams to be untied, the girls had a little fun at his expense, waving at him and calling "Hi, Bummer!" "Still comfortable up there?" Emma added, then she and Fin giggled.

While Bummer continued thrashing in vain to get free of the ropes, Emma called up Lo on her iPhone and put it in speaker mode. "Hey Lo, sure wish you could've joined us at the Office tonight," she greeted the rich girl.

"I know, sorry about that," Lo replied. "I've just been getting settled back in the penthouse. I'm really happy that Daddy finally let me back in after he saw the staff house's condition first-hand."

"You're not the only one," Fin joined in. "Since your dad announced he was closing the 'Roach Motel' until further notice to allow building inspectors to check it out and he allowed the summer staff to move into open guest rooms in the hotel, we've all been feeling stoked. It's great to finally have roach-free rooms with our own bathrooms with hot running water, our own TVs and comfortable beds to sleep in."

"How's Bummer doing down in the lobby?" Lo asked.

"Listen for yourself," Emma said, then she held her phone in Bummer's direction, allowing Lo to hear her ex-boss's muffled protests while tied to the lobby statue.

* * *

><p>Up in her spacious bedroom in the Ridgemount penthouse, Lo giggled happily as she heard Bummer over her iPhone. "That is <em>sooo<em> priceless!" she said. "I sure hope you got some pictures."

"Hang on a sec, I'll send you some," Emma said. Moments later, Lo got a picture file sent to her phone and opened it to see shots of Bummer tied to the Wipeout statue, sending her into a fresh gale of laughter.

"That one's a keeper, Em," Lo said in between giggles. "He's had that coming to him for weeks."

"Couldn't agree more," Fin said. "He'll think twice before he messes with the Surfer's Paradise gang again." After another shared laugh between the girls, she added, "Well, we gotta turn in. Duty calls tomorrow and it's gonna be a whole lot sweeter without Bummer calling the shots."

"Yeah, Daddy said the night manager would be taking over temporarily on day shift until a permanent replacement arrives," Lo said. "From what I hear, the assistant manager at Daddy's hotel in Edmonton looks like a front runner for the job. What makes it even better is that he's Johnny's cousin."

"Cool, can't wait to see that," Emma said. "Okay, 'night Lo, sleep tight."

"'night, Emma, 'night Fin, see you in the morning," Lo said. After hanging up her phone, she went into her ensuite bathroom to enjoy a bubble bath, then she changed into her nightie and hopped into her cozy queen-sized bed.

As she snuggled with her teddy bear, which she had brought back with her from the staff house along with the rest of her luggage, Lo began thinking about Fin and Emma. While she was happy to be back in the penthouse again, she missed the idea of having roommates and spending the evenings before bedtime gossiping with them. _It's just not the same without having Fin and Emma in the same room to talk to_, Lo thought with a sigh. _Maybe a sleepover tomorrow night could fix that_.

* * *

><p><strong>And, of course, everyone who's read A <em>Stoked<em> Christmas knows what the eventual fate of the staff house was following that further notice. :D**

**The story wraps up next chapter when Fin gives her thanks to Reef (ReeFin fans, you'll want to check this out), then to Lo, for their part in avenging her and bringing down Bummer and ending his rule as hotel manager.**


	10. In a Sunset Minute

**CHAPTER 10 - IN A SUNSET MINUTE  
><strong>

**At long last, here's the tenth and final chapter to this story. As promised, I've got some ReeFin happening in the first part of this chapter as Fin shows her thanks to Reef for his help in getting back at Bummer for his crappy treatment of her in Chapters 7 and 8, followed by a Fin-Lo friendship focus in the second part as Fin gives thanks to Lo for being there for her. The title of this chapter is also taken from the phrase "New York minute", and also had a bit of inspiration from the Don Henley song of the same name ("Everything can change...").  
><strong>

**So, you think the kiss between Reef and Fin in "Grom Fest" was the first time those two locked lips? _Wellll_, not quite so... ;D**

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><p>The next day, the mood among the summer staff had improved considerably thanks to Bummer being removed as the Surfer's Paradise day manager and busted down to merely assisting Johnny at the front desk. With Bummer no longer in charge, his ban on surfing against the staff had been overturned and those who had been forced to work seven days a week under Bummer's rule would now get weekends off again. Mr. Ridgemount also declared that those of the staff who had been cheated out of their pay by Bummer would get what they were owed.<p>

To celebrate their freedom from Bummer's tyranny, the groms and Johnny, along with Kelly and David, went into town that evening for burgers and fries at Starvin' Marvin's Drive-In, then they went to see a rare non-surfing-themed movie playing at the Big Wave Theatre, _Speedy and Gomer Escape from the Looney Bin_. After the events of the past week, the gang (especially Fin) were in need of a few good belly laughs, which that comedy film gave them to spare.

After the movie ended and the gang returned to the hotel, Fin and Reef were the last ones to arrive in the hotel's west wing, where the female summer staff had moved into available guest rooms of their choice. They were both laughing as they came out of the elevator, thanks to having flashbacks of the funnier parts of the movie. "Man, that was one of the best movies I've seen in the past three years!" Reef said as he and Fin slowly walked the hallway toward Fin's room. "Never laughed so hard in all that time."

"Yeah, I know," Fin agreed in between laughs. "I wouldn't usually agree with you about that kind of movie, but I really needed some good laughs after all I've been through this last week and that show was just what the doctor ordered."

"Then Dr. Reef's at your service," Reef joked with a grin, "and I don't charge for house calls."

"Yeah, you wish you were a real doctor," a smirking Fin retorted. "And don't even think of asking to 'play doctor' either, kook."

"Got you laughing again, didn't I?" Reef said, wiggling his eyebrows like Groucho Marx.

"Well...yeah, you did," Fin said, giggling slightly.

"Then I've done my job," Reef said with a little self-satisfaction.

As she and Reef rounded a corner to another hallway, Fin said to him, "You know, this is a real surprise to me. Who knew you and I could get through spending time together without having any arguments about anything?"

"Yeah, me too," Reef said, realizing that he and Fin had not argued at all since they went into Sunset Beach for their night out with the gang. "_Big_ shocker there." After a pause, he then asked, "Think we could make that last?"

"Well, that's up to you now, don't you think?" Fin said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I guess so," Reef said after another brief pause. "Now that I think about it, we had a pretty good thing going tonight and I'd hate to do anything to mess that up."

"Good to hear," Fin said with a nod. She and Reef continued walking a few more feet before she stopped in her tracks. "You know something?" she said upon stopping. "I haven't thanked you yet for yesterday."

"Huh?" Reef said, wondering what Fin was talking about.

"Lo told me what you did during the raid on Bummer's office you guys pulled off yesterday," Fin pointed out while she walked up to Reef. "She said you were the one who found those files she needed to show her dad to take Bummer down."

"Yep, that was me," Reef admitted. "Didn't even realize what I had at first 'til I showed them to Lo, though."

_Can't say I'm surprised about that_, Fin thought to herself. "But it made all the difference," she then said to Reef. "Thanks to you finding those files, Bummer's paid the price for all the crap he's done to us the last few weeks."

"And to you especially," Reef added.

"Yeah, to me especially," Fin said with a smirk. "That's why I want to thank you for doing that for me."

Reef chuckled nervously a moment, not expecting Fin to be thanking him for his part in the gang's payback against Bummer. "You do?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Lo said you were a hero for finding those papers, and she was right," Fin said. "And there's a way I can repay you for your part in Bummer's downfall. In a way, it's also a payment for doing it to stand up for me on principle after what Bummer did to me two days ago."

"Really?" Reef said, curious as to what Fin had in mind for her payment. "What do you want to..."

Reef did not get to finish his question, as Fin spun him around and pushed him against a wall in the hallway, walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Just shut up and let me show you, okay?" Fin said in a low, breathy tone, then she put her hands on the sides of Reef's head, pulled him close and began to kiss him.

_Whoa, mama! This betty's a tiger!_ a shocked Reef thought to himself as Fin pressed her lips to his and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. The kiss started out gently, but after a few moments, to Reef's surprise, Fin took it a step further when she parted her lips and slipped her tongue into his mouth. Reef, who had not expected Fin to take the initiative with him after several weeks of speculation about them by their friends, decided simply to go with the flow and willingly engaged his own tongue with Fin's, enjoying the passionate French kiss she had pulled him into as much as she was.

After about two minutes of kissing, Fin slowed it down and pulled her lips back slowly from Reef. "So, what do you think of my way of telling you thanks?" she said quietly, gazing into the surfer boy's eyes.

Reef, still surprised by Fin's kiss, remained in stunned silence for a moment before he replied. "You're...you're welcome," he said hesitantly, then he grinned at Fin, showing his appreciation for the kiss.

Fin giggled slightly and smiled back at Reef. "My pleasure," she said as she stepped back, then began walking away slowly. "See you tomorrow?"

"Sure," Reef replied, then he watched Fin as she walked down the hallway, paying particular attention to her butt while he watched her go. After taking a few steps, Fin, who got a sense that Reef was checking her out, stopped a moment and turned to glance over her left shoulder at him. "Are you looking at my butt?" she asked out of curiosity with a raised eyebrow.

"Uhh...yeah?" Reef said with hesitation, wanting to be honest with his answer but also hoping Fin would not get mad at him for it.

Satisfied with the answer, Fin simply giggled again. "Just checking," she said with a grin, then she continued down the hallway to go meet Emma at her room, while Reef continued to watch Fin until she arrived at Emma's door.

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><p>A few minutes later, Fin and Emma headed up to the Ridgemount penthouse, where Lo had invited them. Mr. Ridgemount was away for the weekend on a business trip to Calgary and had taken Ty and George with him, so Lo had asked her friends to join her for a sleepover at the penthouse. The girls, joined by Mrs. Ridgemount, had a good time with their slumber party, playing <em>Guitar Hero World Tour<em> on the Ridgemounts' 92-inch plasma widescreen TV first, then watching a "chick flick" movie on pay-per-view while enjoying pizza, popcorn and pop. After Mrs. Ridgemount decided to turn in for the night when the movie ended, the girls spent the next half-hour gossiping about boys and talking about their newfound freedom from Bummer's rule before they also called it a night.

At around quarter after one in the morning, however, Fin was outside on the penthouse's pool deck. She was unable to sleep, so she had gone out to the pool area and was looking at the moon, the stars in the night sky and the Pacific Ocean in the near distance while standing near the railing surrounding the pool deck. She was still standing at the same spot when Lo, who had woken up a few minutes earlier and did not find Fin in the living room where the girls were sleeping, spotted Fin outside and went out to join her.

"Hey, Fin," Lo said as she stopped next to her friend. "Feeling okay?"

Fin glanced toward Lo for a moment before turning back to the sky. "I couldn't sleep," Fin replied. "I'm still thinking about my dad."

"You want to talk about it?" a sympathetic Lo asked, putting her left arm over Fin's shoulders.

Fin let out a small sigh. "I was thinking about the last time I talked with Dad on the webcam before the accident," she said. "I was telling him about what a good time I was having here with you guys, with the surfing and the other stuff I was doing."

"Well, that's good, right?" Lo said. "I'm sure he was happy to hear that."

"He was," Fin said, "but what I told him was only half-true."

"What? I don't understand," a puzzled Lo said.

"The part about having fun here _is_ true," Fin explained. "But I didn't tell him that I was unhappy at the same time because of Bummer and what he put us through here. I didn't want to say anything to Dad about it because I didn't want it getting back to my mom. If Mom had heard about me feeling miserable the past couple of weeks because of that jerkwad Bummer, she would've used it as an excuse to make me give up working here. Remember when I said my mom hates it when I go surfing?"

"Yeah," Lo said, nodding. "But I know your dad let you surf and your grandma encouraged you to do it. That's what matters, right?"

"Yeah, you're right," Fin agreed. "But now with Dad gone, I'll never get to see him there to root me on when I decide to compete at the higher-level surfing events." Her voice became more emotional upon thinking about her personal loss again. "He won't be there when I hold up the Canadian Championship trophy on the winner's podium, or even the World Championship."

"No, not physically," Lo said. "But he will be there in spirit. After all you told me, I think he knew how important surfing is to you and I think he'd be proud to know, even now, that you're doing what you enjoy best. Any trophies that come along are just an added bonus." Lo then put her right hand on Fin's upper right arm, another comforting gesture to let her friend know she was there for her. "The main thing is how supportive he was of you and your desire to be the best surfer you can be."

Fin turned her head slightly to glance at Lo again, then she returned to watching the sky. "True," she admitted, thinking about what Lo said. "I'm glad he was."

"And as long as you think about your dad and all the good memories you have of him, and you keep him in your heart, he'll never really be gone," Lo said, giving encouragement to Fin with her reassuring words.

Unknown to Lo (who was standing on Fin's right), a tear slid down Fin's left cheek as she glanced up at the sky and thought about Lo's words. "Thanks, Lo," she said quietly, then she paused a moment. "I'm really glad you and the others had my back through all this."

"It was worth it," Lo said. "Everyone else thought so too, even Reef."

"Yeah," Fin said in agreement. "I know you said Reef was the one who found those forms that busted Bummer, but it was your idea to raid Bummer's office that helped make it happen. You took a big risk to step up to the plate for me."

"Like I said, it was worth it for you, for a good reason," Lo admitted. "You could've stayed mad at me and snubbed me when I made you guys miss your first chance to surf on your first day here before I joined the staff, and I wouldn't have blamed you...but you didn't. You started believing in me when I stepped up and started taking more responsibility, and you supported me in the things I did to make life a little easier and more enjoyable here for the summer staff in spite of Bummer."

Lo paused a moment before she continued. "And after the faith you showed in me, I wanted to do what I could for you when you told me about your dad," she told Fin. "Besides wanting to help you feel better, I did it because of how important you've become to me over the summer. You're my best friend, and you're like the sister I wish I could've had. And most important of all, Fin... I love you."

When she heard Lo consider her to be like a sister to her, Fin was touched. "You really think of me like a sister?" she said as she turned her head to look at Lo.

"I do," Lo said with a nod and a smile.

Fin softened when she heard Lo confirm what she said. "Thanks Lo, that really means a lot," Fin said. "I'll admit something to you, too... Over the last few weeks, and especially over this past week, you've been just like a sister to me too. I thought I could try to get through my dad's death on my own, but you really came through when I needed someone to lean on. Outside my own family back home, you've been the closest thing I've had to family here all this time."

Lo smiled again at Fin's heartfelt statement, then she turned her friend around to face her and put her hands on Fin's shoulders. "You know something, Fin?" she said. "As far as I'm concerned, after all we've been through, you _are_ family to me now, just as much as my folks are to me. Don't ever doubt that."

"Don't worry, I won't," Fin said with a nervous giggle. After a pause, she added, "And remember when I said you were a sweetheart for being there to comfort me after my dad..."

"Yeah?" Lo said.

"You're more than that to me now," Fin admitted as she looked Lo in her eyes. "You're an angel." Remembering the kiss Lo gave her on the cheek while she had comforted her, Fin repaid the rich girl in kind as she moved forward and gave Lo a kiss on her cheek, then she and Lo wrapped their arms around each other in a big hug, which they held onto for several minutes while Fin leaned her head against Lo's. "I love you, Lo," an emotional Fin said as she shed another tear.

"I love you too, Fin," Lo replied softly, feeling some tears of her own coming on. "I love you so much."

"And I'll find a way to repay you someday for your kindness," a grateful Fin said. "I owe it to you."

"It's okay," Lo said. "That's what I wanted to do."

After their embrace, Lo stepped back a bit to look at Fin again. Neither of the girls had really wanted their hug to end because of the positive emotional and spiritual vibes and the comfort they got from it, but Lo needed a moment to wipe away her tears. "So, you ready to go back inside?" she asked Fin, keeping her left hand on Fin's right shoulder while using her right hand to get to the tear trails on her cheeks.

"No, not yet," Fin said, taking a moment to wipe away another tear of her own. "I think I'll stay out here for a bit to be with my thoughts." She paused briefly before she then said to Lo, "Though I wouldn't mind some company while I'm here...and I'd be okay with some more cuddling, if you want."

Feeling happy to be needed and more than willing to grant Fin's request, Lo smiled. "Sure, I'd love to," she said. While Fin returned to looking out to the night scenery beyond the hotel, Lo went behind Fin and wrapped her arms around her friend's waist in another embrace, with Fin putting her forearms on top of Lo's as the two girls watched the full moon's reflection off the ocean's surface.

As she and Lo continued watching the beach and the water near the hotel, Fin then glanced up at the sky, looked at it for a few moments and had a thought about what she was watching. "They're beautiful tonight, aren't they?" she said.

"What's that?" a curious Lo wondered.

"The stars," Fin said. "I didn't really pay much attention to them those times the gang went night surfing, or a lot of other times before I came to the hotel. But now since Dad's been gone, I've been looking at them more and thinking about him while I do."

"I understand," Lo said. "Sometimes I look at the stars too, when I have things on my mind." After that, the girls said nothing for a few moments as they continued watching the stars. During that time, Fin took Lo's right hand into her left, then moved it up to her left shoulder to rest there and kept her left hand on top of Lo's right, doing so in appreciation for how supportive, sweet and caring Lo had been to her in the week following Fin's father's death. After noticing this, Lo simply leaned her head against Fin's and smiled contentedly.

"You know what else I have on my mind right now?" Fin said quietly, breaking the silence. "Reef."

"Why am I not surprised?" Lo commented with a small giggle. "Why is that?"

"Reef walked me over to my room right after we got back from the movie," Fin said. "He and I talked a bit along the way about the plan to knock Bummer off his high horse, then I told him how funny I found it that we didn't argue once during the night out tonight."

"Uh-huh," Lo said, eager to know what happened next. "Then what?"

"Well," Fin continued, "then I pushed Reef up against the wall in the hallway, then I... I kissed him."

Lo let out a small gasp when she heard that news. "No way!" she said. "Really?"

"Mm-hmm," Fin replied with a nod. "Lasted a couple of minutes or so. It wasn't just an ordinary kiss either."

Lo gasped again. "Did you French him?" she asked, curious to know.

"Mmm...yeah, I did." a hesitant Fin said. When Lo let out a louder gasp in response, Fin sensed what was coming and took a pre-emptive measure. "Please don't squeal in my ear, Lo," she said to her friend. "Otherwise I'll lose hearing in my right ear for like half an hour."

"Oh, sorry Fin," Lo apologized quietly. "I won't do it then. It's almost like force of habit when I hear about you and Reef together."

"That's okay," Fin said with a giggle. "You're actually the first one I've told about it."

"Whoa, now that _is_ special," Lo remarked. After a moment, she added, "Maybe we could talk about you kissing Reef in more detail over some leftover pizza when we go back inside."

"Sure," Fin agreed, "but not just yet. It's a beautiful night out tonight and I'd like to enjoy it a while longer."

"Yeah, me too," Lo said softly as she and Fin decided to remain in their embrace out on the penthouse pool deck and continue watching and enjoying the surroundings in the moonlight beyond the hotel.

**THE END**

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><p><strong>And if you've read Chapter 5 of A <em>Stoked<em> Christmas, you know how Fin ended up repaying Lo for the kindness she showed her in this story. :D  
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**And there you have it. Next _Stoked_ fic I do, it'll be the beginning of Year Two for the Surfer's Paradise gang as they reunite for another summer of adventure, drama, romance and humorous hijinks at the hotel, and they get joined by some new groms.**

**Comments and reviews are welcome.  
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